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A MEMORIAL, 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 




^^-^t^ CC^C^c^ 



A MEMORIAL 



OF 



PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN 



FROM THl 



CITY OF BOSTON 



ufe*. 5>nMAy^ 




BOSTON 
PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL 

1889 



E4-u'r 



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CITY OF BOSTON. 
In Board of Aldermen, Dec. 31, 1888. 

Ordered, That the Clerk of Committees be hereby authorized, under the di- 
rection of the Committee on Printing, to prepare for publication and to print 
two thousand copies of the proceedings of the City Council upon the death 
of General Philip H. Sheridan, together with an account of the memorial 
services at Tremont Temple on the 18th instant, including the eulogy pro- 
nounced by General Francis A. Walker, ten copies to be allowed each mem- 
ber of the City Council of 1888; the expense thus incurred to be charged 
to the appropriation for Incidentals. 

Passed. Sent down for concurrence. Jan. 3, came up concurred. 

Approved by the Mayor, January 5, 1889. 

A true copy. 

Attest : 

JOHN T. PRIEST, 

Assistant City Clerk. 



CONTENTS. 



Death of General Sheridan .... 
Action op the City Government 

Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen 
Message of His Honor Mayor O'Brien 
Kemarks of Alderman Rogers . 
Eesolutions offered by Alderman Rogers 
Remarks of Alderman McLaughlin 
Remarks of Alderman C. W. Smith 
Remarks of Alderman Gove 
Proceedings of the Common Council 
Remarks of President David F. Barry 
Remarks of Richard Sullivan , 
Remarks of Joseph Maccabe 
Memorial Services in Tremont Temple. 

Prayer by Rev. William Elliot Griffis, D.D. 
Eulogy by Gen. Francis A. Walker 
Final Proceedings .... 



PAQE 

11 
15 
15 
15 
16 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
28 
33 
35 
41 
121 



DEATH OF GENERAL SHERIDAN. 



DEATH OF GENERAL SHERIDAN. 



The death of General Philip Henry Sheridan occurred 
at Nonquit, near New Bedford, Massachusetts, on the 5th of 
August, 1888, at twenty minutes past ten o'clock P.M. 

The immediate cause of his death was heart feilure, brouo^ht 
on by a complication of disorders from which he had been 
suffering for some time. In the early spring he had ex- 
perienced an attack that threatened a fatal termination, and 
for a number of weeks his life was despaired of; the whole 
nation meantime being held in a suspense of anxious long- 
ing for the welfare of the illustrious general whose life was 
precious in their sight. On the approach of warm weather, 
however, he rallied sufficiently to permit of his removal from 
Washington to the more refreshing climate and air of the 
little village of Nonquit, on the southerly shore of our own 
Massachusetts. Here he improved apparently, for a time, 
but it was not a lasting improvement, as the hand of Death 
was upon him ; and the hero of many a well-fought battle- 
field finally succumbed to the last enemy of man, his death 
occurring as above stated. 



ACTION OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT. 



ACTION OF THE CITY GOVEENMENT. 



The news of his death was soon received in this city, and 
the sad intelligence was conveyed to the citizens by tolling 
the fire-alarm bells. 

His Honor Mayor O'Brien immediately issued a call for 
special meetings of the two branches of the City Government 
for the purpose of taking official recognition of the sad event. 

In Board of Aldermen, Monday, Aug. 6, 1888. 

Special meeting of the Board of Aldermen at one o'clock 
P.M., under call of His Honor the Mayor, to take appro- 
priate action relative to the death of Gen. Philip H. 
Sheridan, Alderman Allen, chairman, presiding. Absent; 
Aldermen Doherty, N. G. Smith, Wilson. 

The call was read and placed on file. 

The following was received : — 

City of Boston, 
Executive Department, Aug. 6, 1888. 
To the Honorable the City Council: — 

Gentlemen, — I regret to announce the death of Gen. Philip 
H. Sheridau, aud it is proper that the City Council of Boston 
should be among the first to pass appropriate resolutions in honor 
of his memory. 

General Sheridan has been one of our most prominent citizens 
for twenty-five years. A brave and courageous soldier, one of 
our most successful generals in the late war, we are largely 



16 THE SHERIDAN MEMOKIAL. 

indebted to him for the peace, imiou, and prosperity that the 
country now enjoys. 

At the time of his death he was the commander of our army, 
honored and respected by all our people, and we regret that in 
the prime of manhood, when his experience and ability were of 
great benefit to his country, he should be called from among us. 

Yours respectfully, 

HUGH O'BRIEN, Mayor. 

Sent down. 

Alderman Rogers said : — 

1 am satisfied that we will all recognize the pro- 
priety of the action of His Honor the Mayor in 
calling ns together upon this occasion. We also 
recognize the impropriety of any attempt at a eulogy 
on the character of a man like General Sheridan, 
especially at this time; l)ut we are delighted to 
place ourselves upon record as among those who 
appreciate the qualities which made him General 
Sheridan. There are two or three characteristics of 
the man which, it seems to me, are so prominent as 
to ]3e all that I will attempt to mention, and one 
of those is the characteristic, which is rare, of his 
ability to command men. There are certain charac- 
teristics which a man may have, which we call elo- 
quence — that is, the power to move men by oratory. 
It does not consist in well-rounded sentences; it does 
not consist in the grammatical expression; but there 
is a subtle something, which we call eloquence, by 
which men ai-e moved, and moved so that the man 
by his power, independent of his other characteristics 



ACTION OF THE CITY C^OVERNMENT. 17 

or qualifications, is recognized as an orator. There 
was something in General Sheridan which gave him 
the power to command men. It is a subtle some- 
thing which we cannot describe, but it was real. 
We recognize the power of a man to influence us 
and lead us the moment we come into his presence. 
It seems to me that characteristie was manifested in 
every act that made up the career of General Sher- 
idan; not only at Winchester, where we have him in 
verse as a hero, Avho, by his 2)resence, gathered 
together the scattered arm-y and wrought victory out 
of defeat, but at every point where he touched the 
army of the United States, and in every campaign 
almost, he was a conspicuous figure; we find in him 
this same power to influence men by his presence; 
and his courage was, of course, beyond all question, 
for more than any other man in our late army was 
he found at the front to cheer the men by his per- 
sonal presence. N^ot only this, but he was an expert 
in the art of war. We sometimes say that circum- 
stances make a man; but circumstances never made 
a man like Sheridan out of ordinary material. Prov- 
idence comes to our relief sometimes; but you always 
find in the men who have become great and who 
have achieved great things, qualities of greatness 
which only need the opportunity to develop them- 
selves. These qualifications and these abilities Gen- 
eral Sheridan possessed in a remarkable degree. 
Then he was an executive, and could accomplish 
what he attempted, and expected to accomplish it 
before he attempted it; and the men who can both 



18 THE SHEIlIDA:Nr MEMORIAL. 

plan and execute are rare. General Sheridan was 
one of those men. In order to voice the sentiment 
of this Board in regard to the great national loss 
that the country has sustained, in obedience to the 
call of his Honor the Mayor I wish to offer these 
resolutions. 

Alderman Rogers offered the following : — 

Resolved, That the members of the City Council 
of Boston have learned of the death of Gen. Philip 
Sheridan with feelings of j^i'^f'^^^^^^^ sorrow and 
regret. 

Hesolved, That by the death of General Sheridan 
the people of this country are called upon to mourn 
the loss of another gallant soldier, a high-minded 
patriot and citizen, whose name must be added to 
the roll of distinguished heroes whose fame and ser- 
vices a grateful country will ever faithfully cherish. 

" That which made these men and men like these 
can never die." 

Resolved, That we recognize in General Sheridan 
all those admirable qualities which go to make up 
the true soldier and military hero. He entered the 
service of his country fully equipped in the science 
of war, and throughout his career he displayed such 
courage and sagacity, and such brilliant generalship 
in conducting his campaigns, as to win for himself a 
conspicuous position among our most distinguished 
military commanders. 

Resolved, That the members of the City Council of 



ACTION OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT. 19 

Boston extend their warmest sympathy to the family 
of the late General Sheridan in this hour of sorrow 
and affliction. 

Ordered, That, as a mark of respect, His Honor the 
Mayor be requested to cause the flags to be displayed 
at half-mast upon the public buildings and grounds 
until the day of the funeral, and the fire-alarm bells 
to be tolled during the hour set apart for the funeral 
of General Sheridan. 

The CHAHiMAN : — 

Gentlemen, the resolutions and orders are before 
you for your action. 

Alderman McLaughlin said : — 

I desire to second the resolutions that have been 
presented as a tribute to the memory of our late 
General Sheridan. When the news through the press 
this morning was conveyed to the country that he had 
died, nothing was heard on either hand but words 
of sympathy and condolence for his family and the 
country. His life, Mr. Chairman, like those of others, 
has been to me a striking and forcible illustration 
of the great benefit and advantage it is to be a citi- 
zen of a great, free country, because in him we find 
the boy of humble origin transferred, not by any 
inheritance, not by any social position, and not by 
any political influence, into one of the greatest gen- 
erals that the age has seen, ^ot only has he been 



20 THE SHElilDAX MEMORIAL. 

esteemed by our whole country, but he has been 
admired by the whole world, and looked up to by 
the great generals on the other side as one of the 
greatest in his special line. But a short time ago, 
Mr. Chairman, some of us had the pleasure of seeing 
the general in Boston. I cannot, in my way, add 
anything to his fame as a general of the United 
States army, but this I must say, that those who 
were associated with him in the trials of this country 
adored him, because they knew that wherever they 
went he was Avilling also to risk his life. Those of 
us who, at that time, could not and did not apj^re- 
ciate, on account of our years, the position, have 
learned since, from history, who he was and what was 
the esteem that he was held in by the soldiers of 
the army. It is certainly a proper thing for the loyal 
city of Boston at this time to bow its head in rever- 
ence to the memory of a man whose name will shine 
in the history of our country as one of its bravest 
generals and truest citizens. 

Alderman C. W. Sjiith said : — 

I desire to second the resolutions which have been 
offered by the gentleman from Ward 25. The great 
generals, as well as the private soldiers, of the late 
civil war are fast passing away. Already more than 
a majority of those who took up arms in the defence 
of their country, at the call of our beloved President, 
Abraham Lincoln, have passed away. How cordial 
would be the rec*eption tendered to those heroes of 



ACTIOX OP THE CITY GOVERX3IENT. 21 

hig'h and low rank were they allowed to return to us 
again! But would the reception be less cordial, 
extended by those who fell upon the field of battle 
and those who died soon after the close of the war, 
either from disease contracted in the service or wounds 
received, to their commander, General Sheridan, who 
has so lately joined themV How pleasant must be 
the meeting of those veterans after many years of 
separation! It is our pleasure, as well as our duty, 
to honor the dead, — the patriotic dead, our country's 
dead; but let us not forget those who still remain 
with us. To them we can extend aid and assist- 
ance whenever relief is needed, while with the dead 
we can simply place upon their graves the flowers on 
Memorial day, and keep ever present in our memo- 
ries the services that they rendered the country. 
General Sheridan — a general among generals, a leader 
among leaders, a citizen among citizens, leaving in 
war no blot on his name, leaving in peace no stain 
on his record — will stand high on the roll of honor 
of those who served, and served well, their country 
in its hour of need. I believe the resolutions which 
have been oflered express the feelings and sentiments 
of every member of this Board, and I would suggest 
that when the vote be taken on their adoption that 
it be taken by a rising vote. 

The resolves and order were adopted by a unanimous ris- 
ing vote. 
Sent down. 
Alderman Gove said : — 



22 THE SHERIDAN MEMORIAL. 

In rising to present this order which I propose to 
present immediately, I would say that my reason for 
presenting it is this: that it seems to me the most 
honored members of the City Council should, as a 
mark of respect to the memory of the departed dead, 
represent us in j^aying our respects. I believe, Mr. 
Chairman, that when so noble, so brave, and so good 
a man as General Sheridan has passed away, it is 
the duty of the city government of Boston to send 
representatives to represent them in paying the last 
tribute that can be paid, and I present the following 
order, and ask for its adoption : — 

Alderman Gove offered an order : — 

That the Chairman of the Board of Aldermen and 
the President of the Common Council be a committee 
authorized to attend the funeral of the late Gen. 
Philip H. Sheridan, the expense attending the same 
to be charged to the joint contingent fund of the 
City Council. 

The order was read a second time and passed under a 
suspension of the rules. 
Sent down. 
Adjourned at 1.28 P.M., on motion of Alderman Gove. 

In Common Council, Monday, Aug. 6, 1888. 
Special meeting of the Common Council at 7.30 P.M., 
under call of His Honor the Mayor, to take appropriate 
action on the death of Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, President 
Barry in the chair. 



ACTION OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT. 23 

The call for the meeting was placed on file. 

President Barry, in calling the meeting to order, said : — 



Oentlemen of the Common Council, — It is with no 
ordinary emotion that I call yon to order to-night. 
His Honor the Mayor has summoned us together in 
special session, in order that we may have an op- 
portunity of expressing, in behalf of the City of 
Boston, the sincere and heartfelt sorrow which we 
all feel at the death of General Sheridan. I know 
that no words of mine are needed to ensure the 
passage of appropriate resolutions, which will testify 
to the courage, the bravery, and the patriotism of 
the departed hero. The praise of his many admirable 
qualities is to-day on every tongue, and we all feel 
that by his death we have lost a personal friend, so 
endeared was he to all our hearts. I wish it was 
within my power to express to you a fair estimate 
of the noble character of General Sheridan; but this 
will be done under the auspices of the city govern- 
ment, at an early day, by one fully competent. The 
death of the gallant commander falls with severity 
on us all, but especially on those of our number who 
are of the same blood and the same faith as he was. 
He was an honor to the suffering country which was 
the home of his ancestors, and a credit to the religion 
which beautified his life and sanctified his death. I 
will not detain you longer by further remarks of my 
own, but will ask the clerk to read the message of 
His Honor the Mayor. 



24 tup: SHERIDAN MEMOlilAL. 

The following papers came down from the Board of Al- 
dermen : — 

Message of His Honor the Mayor to the City Council, 
relative to the death of General Sheridan. 

Placed on file. 

Resolutions of respect to the memory of General Sheri- 
dan, and order that, as a mark of respect, His Honor the 
Mayor be requested to cause the flags to be displayed at 
half-mast upon the public l)uildings and grounds until the 
day of the funeral, and the fire-alarm bells to be tolled 
during the hour set apart for the funeral. 

Mr. Sullivan, of Ward 22, said : — 

I rise to move that the Council concur in the 
passage of the resolutions and in the adoption 
of the order as sent down by the Board of Alder- 
men. Perhaps it would be unnecessary for me, as 
a member of the Common Council, to add anything 
to what is expressed in the excellent resolutions that 
have been offered in the Board of Aldermen, and I 
would not do so but for this fact, that I feel, 
after once having had the privilege and honor of 
meeting General Sheridan, that it would be, perhaps, 
in me a fault, if not a wrong, not to say something 
about the gallant hero of the Shenandoah Yalley. 
I am struck with the fact that, however great a 
man is in his life, still, like all men, his death has 
to come, and that at the door of the rich and the 
poor, the humble and the great, death's knock will 
be heard, and life will have passed away. In General 
Sheridan there are characteristics, to my mind, that 



ACTIOX OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT. 25 

perhaps cannot be found in any other of the grand 
heroes of the hite war of the rebelhon, and I may 
go further and say that, taking all the great generals 
we may read about in history, there were character- 
istics in General Sheridan, noble and sublime, that 
could not have been found in them. It would perhaps 
be unnecessary to any one having read the history of 
the great war which has passed away, and also 
having studied into the characters and abilities of 
the great generals who brought victory to many a 
battle-field for the Union, for me to dwell at all on 
things of that Mud, for in every hamlet, town, and 
village the children of the United States learn about 
the history of the rebellion, and the heroes who 
fought in the great rebellion ; and yet, when we 
regard the life of General Sheridan, a small boy in 
an obscure village in the State of Ohio, who, by 
the flash of his genius and the brilliancy of his 
sword, went from the captaincy of a single company 
and became what has only been granted to two in 
the history of this country, — lieutenant-general of the 
army, — we must stand somewhat in astonishment, and 
must also reflect on this fact and this truth, — that 
every boy, whether born in the hovels of the city 
or in the farmhouse of the country, has this right, 
under the Constitution of America, to rise to the 
highest position that this country can bestow upon 
him. This was seen in the career of General Sheri- 
dan ; and in all the great battle-fields on which he 
fought, the great energy, genius, perseverance, and 
activity of the man was shown from Booneville to 



26 THE SHERIDA^^J^ MEMORIAL. 

Chickamauga, from Chickamaiiga to Chattanooga, 
from Chattanooga to Cedar Creek, from Cedar Creek 
to Cold Harbor, nntil he became the subhme hero of 
the Shenandoah Yalley ; so mnch so, that when the 
name of Sheridan was heard in the valley, from the 
day when he rode from twenty miles away and 
saved the Union army from defeat, the people knew 
that they were safe when Sheridan was near, and 
the opposing armies of the South knew that it was 
no place for them to be when Sheridan was at the 
head of his great cavalry. Sheridan was, indeed, a 
sublime soldier. He proved by his career that a 
man may have his ancestors from a foreign country, 
may be of English, Irish, or Italian origin, or what 
not, and still prove a good American citizen. 
Sheridan is an example to-day that all men may 
look up to as a proof that a man may be of a 
certain religion, and yet become and be a true 
American citizen. For that reason, there are many 
in this country, north, south, east, and west, who 
look up to Sheridan, besides being a glorious patriot 
and soldier, as also representing the fact that a man 
may be a true citizen of this republic, whatever his 
opinions may be either in politics or religion. That 
is what General Sheridan has proved; and when we 
reflect that after the soldier had passed through his 
battles and sieges, after he attained the greatest 
rank in the army that this country could place upon 
him, after becoming the lieutenant-general of the 
army, and then its general, we cannot but more 
than ever admire the man when we see the quiet 



ACTIOX OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT. 27 

tranquillity and nobleness of his life in the home 
with his wife and little children. That time, perhaps, 
too soon passed away. The general did not long 
retain the great office that his country bestowed 
upon him. He soon passed from this life, I trust 
to obtain greater glories than earth could place 
upon him. Another thing strikes the student of the 
great men of the times, and it is this, in my 
opinion, that at the death-bed it would seem that 
he was surrounded by the more holy scenes of the 
great battle of life. It was not the Sisters of 
Mercy bending over the soldier dying on the battle- 
field, and yet perhaps to his mind the battles that 
had passed away came back as he saw the sweet 
faces of the nuns, not about his tent, not on a bed 
of straw, but about his home. What a holy scene 
it was to see the man, the hero, the great soldier 
of his time, of whom it was said by the great 
German soldier, Yon Moltke, that perhaps he had 
surpassed, not only in his own time, but in all 
times, all others as a cavalry leader, — the man whom 
the great General Grant, whom many of his country- 
men laud to the skies as the peer of Caesar and 
Hannibal, said was perhaps the greatest soldier of 
his time, — what a holy scene it was to see him 
surrounded by these sweet influences! It would be 
perhaps wholly out of place to compare this general 
with other generals of his own time or those who 
have passed by ; but to return once more to his 
death-bed, I felt as I read the story of his dying 
hours, and how the sweet nuns Urban and Justinia 



28 THE SHEKIDAX MKMORIAL. 

knelt by his bedside in prayer, that he was obtain- 
ing greater glory than had ever been bestowed npon 
him, greater than earth conld ofter to him, and that 
he was going to that land which I trust he is 
now in, loaded with those honors which virtue always 
will attain, and which, no doubt, he has attained. 
Therefore, Mr. President, and gentlemen of the 
Council, without further remarks on this matter, I 
would say for myself, and I think each one of you 
will re-echo in your hearts what I say, peace be 
to the soul of General Philip H. Sheridan ! 

Mr. Maccabe, of Ward 1, said : — 

It is with the deepest feelings of regret, Mr. Presi- 
dent and gentlemen, that I rise to second, the resolu- 
tions just commented u]3on by my eloquent friend. I 
fully appreciate the services of General Sheridan, yet I 
cannot give utterance to sufficient words in praise of 
his patriotic efforts as a loyal American. His deeds 
speak for themselves, as is amply attested to by a sor- 
rowing nation, who, to-night, enjoy prosperity and 
plenty by the grace of God and the struggles of 
this same heroic Sheridan and his comrades in blue, 
leaving to us a country with no IS^orth, no South, no 
East, no West, but one country and one flag. Inci- 
dentally, I might remark that the life of General 
Sheridan aftbrds a magnificent lesson to the American 
youth, in that it serves to illustrate that no barrier 
can exist in this country of ours whereby true worth 
or ambition is in any wise limited. That, if nothing 



ACTION^ OF THE CITY GOVERNMENT. 29 

more, is amply attested in the magnificent record of 
General Sheridan, who has passed to his rest. Gen- 
eral Sheridan, moreover, had all the features and 
essential qualities of a great man. It is a i^leasnre 
to read his history; as a boy, obedient and dutiful 
to his mother; as a husband and a father, kind and 
loving; as a man, true and steadfast, honorable and 
upright; and as a soldier, his heart was as warm as 
it was brave. Brave and patriotic, loyal and true, 
he will be forever the object of a nation's love and 
gratitude as one of the patriots who bared their 
breasts to the hissing bullet and screeching shell that 
the life of this our country might be maintained in 
all its dignity and simple grandeur. Mr. President, 
I second the adoption of the resolutions. 

The resolutions and order were adopted by a unanimous 
rising vote. 

The following also came from the Board : — 

Ordered^ That the Chaii-man of the Board of Aldermen and the 
President of the Common Council be a committee authorized to 
attend the funeral, the expense attending the same to be charged 
to the joint contingent fund of the City Council. 

The question came on giving the order a second reading. 

The order was read a second time and passed in con- 
currence, under suspension of the rule. 

Adjourned at 8.12 P.M., on motion of Mr. Fraser, of 
Ward 6. 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 



The following order was presented on the 13th of Sep- 
tember, and adopted by the City Council, providing for the 
appointment of a Joint Special Committee, to arrange for 
the delivery of a eulogy upon the life and services of 
General Sheridan, namely : — 

City of Boston, 
Ix CoMMOx Council, Sept. 13, 1888. 

Ordered, That a Joint Special Committee, eonsisthig of five 
members of the Common Council, with such as the Board of 
Aldermen may join, be appointed to arrange for the delivery of 
a eulogy on the life and services of the late Gen. Philip H. 
Sheridan, before the city "government and citizens of Boston; the 
expense for the same to be charged to the appropriation for 
Incidental Expenses. 

Passed ; yeas, 58 ; nays, none. 

* Messrs. Keenan, Boynton, R. Sullivan, Clark, and Eraser were 

appointed on said committee. 

Sent up for concurrence. 

DAVID F. BARRY, 

P7'eside7it. 



34 THE SHERIDAK MEMOKIAL. 

In Board of Aldermen, Sept. 17, 1888. 
Concurred ; yeas, 11 ; nays, none ; and Aldermen Allen, McLaughlin, 
and Rogers were appointed on said committee. 

CHAS. H. ALLEN, 

Chairman. 



Approved Sept. 19, 1888. 



A true copy. 

Attest : 



CHAS. H. ALLEN, 

Acting Mayor, 



J. H. O'NEIL, 

City Clerk. 

In pursuance of the duties imposed upon them, the com- 
mittee made their arrangements for a memorial service in 
honor of General Sheridan, and selected the 18th of Decem- 
ber as the day upon which the service should take place. 

Gen. Francis A. Walker, a well-known military man and 
intimately connected with General Sheridan during the war, 
was invited to pronounce the eulogy, and accepted the 
invitation of the committee. 

The trustees of Tremont Temple tendered to the city the 
free use of their hall for the services, and their otfer was 
accepted. 

Official invitations to attend the services were extended to 
His Excellency the Governor and the members of his staff; 
the Executive Council ; heads of State Departments ; United 
States Officers, civil, military, and naval, located in Boston; 
the Judges of the Supreme, Superior, and Municipal Courts; 
past Mayors of Boston ; representatives of the Press ; mem- 
bers of the City Council ; heads of Departments and city 
officials. 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 35 

The platform was tastefully decorated with plants and 
flowers ; festoons of laurel leaves and smilax adorned the 
front, and a beautiful basket of flowers covered the speaker's 
desk. The exercises commenced at three o'clock with music 
by the Germania Orchestra. 

His Honor Mayor O'Brien then arose and called upon the 
chaplain of the occasion, Rev. William Elliot Griffis, who 
invoked the divine blessing as follows : — 

PRAYER BY REV. WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, D.D. 

Almighty Clod, unto whom we dedicate our Sab- 
baths, our sanctuaries, and ourselves, to thee, also, 
we dedicate this hour of our solemn gathering. We 
acknowledge thee as the King of kings, the Lord, of 
lords, the Kuler of the hosts of heaven, and the 
Maker of all things, visible and invisible. 

We humbly beseech the presence and blessing of 
the Holy Spirit, as we to-day recall the scenes of a 
generation ago. We praise thee that thou didst form 
the earth to be inhabited ; that thou didst command 
man, thy creature, to subdue and replenish the earth, 
to keep it and make it beautiful. We thank thee 
that thou didst not let this fair continent lie waste, 
but that, in the fulness of thine appointed time, thou 
didst send forth the white-winged messengers of ex- 
ploration and commerce, to spy out this land of our 
fathers. 

We bless thee especially that thou didst bring 
hither the tried and true men of earth, who, in thy 
Providence, were pre^Dared by long discipline and 
hardship for this large and wealthy place. We thank 



36 THE SHEKIDAiSr MEMOKIAL. 

thee that thoii didst watch over them in all their 
trials, even when, hardly bestead and oppressed, they 
were driven from home and from country to country, 
as oil is i^oured from vessel to vessel. Thus didst 
thou lead them, until, with passionate love for liberty, 
for self-g-overnment, for pure religion and learning, 
thou didst bring- them to this coast, and here, out 
of many i3eoples, make one new man. 

We thank thee for the gifts and graces with which 
thou hast endowed the American citizen, and for the 
government founded in Avisdom which we believe was 
above man's. That it pleased thee from colonies to 
make States, and from States a great nation, we give 
thee thanks. And when the life of the nation was 
imperilled, we bless thee, that Avith a zeal, a conse- 
cration to sacrifice, an unquailing courage, and a 
tenacity of conviction equal to those of their Revo- 
lutionary fathers, the sons rose to the struggle 
against rebellion and the conspiracy of slavery. For 
their heroism in the field and on the deck, for 
the unselfish devotion of mothers and kindred, for the 
wisdom of rulers, for the valor of armies, and 
the might of navies, for the patient suffering and the 
active benevolence of those trying days, we thank 
thee, O God, giver of all good things. IS'ot unto us, 
not unto us, but unto thy name, O God, give glory 
for victory. 

And now that our land rests in peace, strong at 
home and respected abroad, may we not forget the 
living heroes who jeoparded their lives for us, nor 
the dead who consecrated their all to their country's 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 37 

cause, counting not their lives dear unto them, that 
they might win for us freedom and union. And as 
to-day thy servant recalls for us, even as David of 
his fellow-soldier, Jonathan, the virtues and merits of 
one of our great leaders, may we learn to follow 
him of whom we shall hear, in his courage, his 
valor, his devotion to duty, and his patriotism. We 
thank thee that thou didst preserve him amid all 
dangers of war and battle to assist in bringing to 
an end the long strife. Teach us by the very limi- 
tations of human character to follow men only as 
they follow him who left us an example that we 
should follow in his steps. Give unto us not only 
the courage of the soldier, but the finer courage of 
faith, of abstinence from all that mars manhood or 
displeases thee. In the little, as well as in the great 
affairs of life, make us patient, faithful and true. 
May we not despise the daily common round of ser- 
vice, nor slight our duty to truth, because life seems 
tame and issues small in these quiet times, compared 
to those stirring years when the drums beat and the 
cannon thundered, and the pulse throbbed. Show us 
the greatness of bloodless victory. Let the rancor of 
strife be forgotten. As over the battlefields nature 
spreads her oblivious mantle of flowers, so in our 
broad land may all bitterness and malice cease, as 
under thy grace and providence we all attain the 
unity of brotherhood, and the people of all the States 
dwell in one love to our common country. 

Preserve unto us and unto those who shall come 
after us, the institutions of law, of order, of free- 



38 THE SHERIDAN ^lEMORIAL. 

dom, of enlightenment, of religion, which thou hast 
ordained. Hear thou the prayer which on our city's 
seal has been engraven: "The Lord our God be with 
us, as he was with our fathers." And thou, O 
Jehovah; in whose sight a thousand years are as 
one day, who seest that one by one the fathers pass 
away, and we, one and all, are swiftly moving to the 
bound of life, prepare us to live on the earth, and 
make us ready to leave it at thy call. Grant that 
when we die, it may be in the communion of the 
Christian church, at peace with God, in charity with 
all mankind, and with a strong, and holy, and reason- 
able hope of life from the dead, through our Lord 
Jesus Christ. Amen. 

At the close of the prayer a selection of music was 
performed by the orchestra, after which His Honor the 
Mayor arose and said : — 

Ladies and Gentlemen, — We meet to-day to recall 
and honor the memory of one of the most brilliant 
generals our country has ever produced [applause], 
and I now take pleasure in introducing Gen. Francis 
A. Walker, who has kindly consented to pronounce 
his eulogy. 

General Walker stepped to the desk, and received a hearty 
greeting. His address was delivered in an interesting style, 
his hearers listening attentively throughout, and at the close 
he was accorded a generous round of applause. 

Another selection of music was then performed, after which 
the benediction was pronounced, and the audience dispersed. 



THE EULOGY 



THE EULOGY. 



The city of Boston drops its wreath of praise, 
bedewed with tears, upon the new-made grave of 
Phihp Sheridan. 

Thrice, in three years, the American people have 
stood by the conch of an illustrious hero, and watched 
with breathless interest the long, losing struggle of 
a resolute, powerful nature in the grasp of the grim 
destroyer. Morning, noon, and night, as the telegraph 
ticked out the foteful figures of pulse, respiration, 
and temperature, the nation felt as those feel who 
overlook a battle on which their all is staked, and 
mark its varying fortunes: ground gained here, and 
there lost; now, a column mounting a height crowned 
by artillery; now, that column shattered in the moment 
of seeming triumph; long lines after a victorious ad- 
vance first brought to a stand, then swept backwards 
by overwhelming force; now, the flight and tumult 
which tell that the enemy has found some weak or 
undefended part, and is fast pouring his eager bat- 
talions into the very heart of the position; and soon 
rout and wreck are everywhere. 

Of the three renowned soldiers whose fate has thus 
painfully interested the nation, and, indeed, the whole 
world, through weary months of fluctuating hopes and 



42 THE sherida:n^ memorial. 

fears, one was the foremost chieftain of our civil war, — 
the patient, silent, indomitable Grant; the second, the 
great, liberal Emperor of Germany; the last, the dar- 
ing and impetuous soldier whom we to-day have met 
to honor. 

Philip Henry Sheridan was born in Albany, March 
6, 1831, of parents who had but a few months be- 
fore reached the land their son was so gallantly to 
defend. From his Irish stock the boy derived that 
high degree of combative spirit and that eager, aggres- 
sive disposition which were, in after life, to make him 
so peculiarly formidable an antagonist. He was to 
play his part in a drama of continental magnitude 
and inconceivable consequence, among men in most of 
whom j^rudence predominated; in whom caution chilled 
the sap of life, so that it ran slowly; men on whom 
responsibility for the lives of thousands rested like an 
oppressive weight; with many of whom high military 
scholarship and studious habits induced excessive re- 
finement in preparation, and long and painful hesita- 
tion in action. He was to take part in a war in 
which the wide geographical extent of the operations, 
the nature of the country in which movements were 
to be made and battles fought, and the peculiar char- 
acter of the adversary to be encountered, should give 
an exceptionally high value to aggressiveness of dis- 
position and a confident and resolute spirit. Temper 
will tell in every war that is waged; but the pro- 
portion in which skill and science, on the one hand, 
and combativeness, on the other, contribute to success, 
vary widely with the conditions under which the con- 



THE EULOGY. 43 

test is carried on. It was in the great American civil 
war that the value of a sanguine temperament, an 
aggressive disposition, and even mere creature pug- 
nacity, on the part of a commander of troops, rose 
to its utmost height. 

Active, eager, impetuous, fiery, by nature: it was 
these quahties, not less than the powers of his mind 
or his professional acquirements, which enabled Sher- 
idan, after long and severe training in subordinate 
station, to rain upon the exhausted body of the Con- 
federacy, in the last year of the war, that fast and 
furious shower of blows which brought to an end the 
greatest rebellion of modern times. 

Although Albany had then but one-third of its 
present population, it already seemed overcrowded to 
John Sheridan, who, with his three children, the 
youngest, Philip, but a year old, moved, in 1832, to 
Somerset, Perry county, Ohio. Here for many years 
he found employment for his energies as a contractor 
upon parts of that great system of public improvements 
which soon made Ohio the third State in the Union. 
Having compassed the small stock of learning which, 
in those primitive conditions, lay within his reach, the 
boy, at fourteen years of age, entered that school in 
which many of America's great men have acquired 
not the least valuable part of their knowledge and 
training, — the country store. Here for three years he 
remained, his quick intelhgence, buoyant disposition, 
and strict fidelity securing him the confidence of his 
employers, and winning for him such small promo- 
tions as the nature of the business allowed. 



44 THE SHEKIDAN MEMOKIAL. 

How it came about that the youthful Sheridan went 
to the Mihtaiy Academy and adopted the profession 
of arms, then so inconspicuous in American life, he 
has told us in those vigorous and racy memoirs which 
four months ago he bequeathed, as almost his sole 
legacy, to his wife and children. It was the echoes 
of the battles of the Mexican war amid those far 
northern woods which first awoke the deep passion 
of his nature, and made him, in thought, and pur- 
pose, and feeling, a soldier. Taking advantage of an 
accidental vacancy in the representation of his Con- 
gressional district at West Point, — an opportunity not 
in those days very highly thought of throughout our 
own section of the country, though always prized by 
the generous youth of the South, — he, to his great 
delight, secured the nomination, and presented himself 
for examination at the Academy. 

Sheridan's career at West Point was not marked 
by scholarly ability. Unlike Grant, who has recorded 
that he was even anxious to see the Academy abol- 
ished, as Avas proposed, in order that he might thus 
get his own discharge, Sheridan enjoyed his cadet 
life and duties, and looked eagerly forward to en- 
trance into the service ; but the deficiencies of his 
early training combined with his mental habits to 
place him in that section of the class whose mem- 
bers are often less honored at the time by their 
instructors than they afterwards, by their conduct, 
prove themselves to deserve. Sheridan was eminently 
a man of action ; scholarship was not greatly in his 
line. Moreover, an outbreak of insubordination, due 



THE EULOGY. 45 

to his fieiy and impetuous temper, led to both loss 
of rank and to suspension for a year. Insulted, as 
he deemed himself, by a cadet superior, he pro- 
ceeded to such measures of personal chastisement as 
led to his graduating a year after the class with 
which he entered. We may not doubt that the bit- 
terness of the disappointment and the disgrace, during 
those eight long months of banishment, spent in the 
cabin of his grieving mother, bore fruit of good 
discipline, and did a useful work in chastening and 
sobering the too impetuous spirit. 

Sheridan was the only one among the West Pointers, 
on either side, in the civil war, attaining the highest 
rank and achieving a permanent reputation, who 
graduated after the war with Mexico. This was un- 
questionably a great loss to him, and cannot rightly 
be left out of account in any estimate that may be 
made of his career. History shows conclusively 
enough that any officer who has, in one war, exer- 
cised high command and won a reputation which he 
may well fear to lose, is less than likely to add to 
his fame in a new contest, succeeding after a long 
interval of peace, perhaps under conditions greatly 
changed by the lapse of time. But while this is 
abundantly established by experience, it is also true 
that it is an inestimable advantage to a young 
soldier, fresh from the schools, to have an oppor- 
tunity to see the practical application of military 
precepts, to personally observe examples of high 
soldierly conduct, and to exercise power and bear 
responsibility under the scrutinizing, but sympathetic. 



46 THE SHEKIDAN^ MEMORIAL. 

eyes of great commanders, to whom he looks up 
with youthful reverence and enthusiasm. Such an 
opportunity was denied to Sheridan ; and that, alone 
among the graduates of the Academy after 1847, he 
fought his way to the first rank among the soldiers 
of the army, justly affords a substantial addition to 
his fame. 

From no source can the student of miUtary his- 
tory derive clearer instruction than in carefully read- 
ing the records of the early service, in subordinate 
capacities, of soldiers who have afterwards become 
renowned ; but neither time nor this occasion permits 
us to dwell on the life of Lieutenant Sheridan be- 
tween 1853 and 1861, first in Texas and afterwards 
in Oregon and Washington Territory. I cannot, 
however, forbear to quote his own account of his 
experience in dealing, when a lieutenant of infantry, 
with a detachment of dragoons, in command of 
Avhich he was placed during the Spokane war, in 
1856: — 

" When I relieved Hood, — a dragoon ofiicer of their 
own regiment, — they did not like the change, and I 
understood that they somewhat contemptuously ex- 
pressed this in more ways than one, in order to try 
the temper of the new ^ leftenant ; ' but appreciative 
and unremitting care, together with firm and just dis- 
cipline, soon quieted all symptoms of dissatisfaction 
and overcame all prejudice. The detachment had been 
made up of details from the different companies of 
the regiment, and as it was usual, under such circum- 
stances, for every company commander to shove into 



THE EULOGY. 47 

the detail he was called upon to furnish the most 
troublesome and insubordinate individuals of his com- 
pany, I had some difficulty, when first taking com- 
mand, in controlling such a medley of recalcitrants; 
but by forethought for them and their wants, and 
a strict watchfulness for their rights and comfort, I 
was able in a short time to make them obedient and 
the detachment cohesive. In the past year they had 
made long and tiresome marches, forded swift moun- 
tain streams, constructed rafts of logs or bundles of 
dry reeds to ferry our baggage, swum deep rivers, 
marched on foot to save their worn-out and exhausted 
animals, climbed mountains, fought Indians, and in all 
and everything had done the best they could for the 
service and their commander. The disaffected feeling 
they entertained when I first assumed command soon 
wore away, and in its place came a confidence and 
respect which it gives me the greatest pleasure to 
remember, for, small though it was, this was my first 
cavalry command." 

What Sheridan here describes was thoroughly char- 
acteristic of his career. What he did, as a young 
second lieutenant, with this strange detachment, he did 
with his brigade of cavalry in Mississippi, with his 
division of infantry in the Army of the Cumberland, 
with the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac. 
Civilians are apt to think of a successful commander 
as a sort of Homeric hero, swaggering around the 
field of battle, and at the critical moment seizing 
some convenient missile, — "a rock which two strong 
men could scarcely lift," — and with it crushing his 



48 THE SHERIDAT^ MEMORIAL. 

antagonist to the earth. But the battles of modern 
warfare are not won by rude strength propelHng 
casual weapons; nor was Sheridan, with all his im- 
petuosity and vehemence, a soldier who relied upon 
gigantic exertions in actual conflict to bring him vic- 
tory. With infinite pains he forged the brand his arm 
was to wield. He knew that unless its temper were 
perfect, the greater the force of the blow the more 
likely was the sword to break in his hand; and, so, 
in camp he was always jDreparing for battle. He 
studied his command, marked and distinguished the 
best officers, assiduously corrected the faults of raw 
levies, and won the confidence of his men, not by 
weak indulgence, not by mere good nature, but by 
care of their health, by provision for their wants, by 
stern rei:)ression of disorder, by anticipation of impend- 
ing evils. It is only men who have been thus dealt 
with before the battle who Avill, in the battle, pos- 
sess that nuitual trust and that reliance upon their 
leader which win victory, if victory is possible, or 
sustain the spirit and maintain discipline in inevitable 
defeat. 

The outbreak of the war of secession found 
Sheridan still on the Pacific coast, a lieutenant of in- 
fantry; but the numerous defections from the army and 
the raising of new " regular "" regiments soon brought 
his promotion to a captaincy. From his distant sta- 
tion he had watched the rising storm of rebellion 
with intense anxiety; and the first conflicts at the 
East wrought in him an inexpressible desire to take 
part in the struggle, due not more to his native 



THE EULOGY. 49 

combativeness and professional ambition than to his 
passionate love of country. 

Perhaps in nothing does popular o^jinion regarding 
the war commit a greater injustice than in attributing 
a superior patriotism to the volunteer. The reasons 
for that notion are not far to seek. The public 
thought was rightfully impressed by the splendid 
gallantry and devotion with which the generous youth 
of 1861, through their own free act and choice, cut 
themselves off from home and friends and rallied 
around the flag of the Union. On the other hand, 
the officers of the regular army Avere not less nat- 
urally looked upon as accepting their posts of danger 
and sacrifice almost as a matter of business, the 
course of their education and their professional inter- 
ests practically leaving them no choice but to fight 
on the one side or on the other. 

I believe, however, that public spirit was exception- 
ally strong among the officers of the regular army. 
They, alone, of all the citizens of the United States, had 
been educated and bred under circumstances which made 
their country a constant object of regard, and which 
magnified and exalted every consideration relating to 
its honor and dignity. Those of us who remember 
the days before the war recall how common then 
was the complaint that patriotism was dead; that the 
long reign of peace had fostered, at the best, civic 
virtues only, and that professional ambition and the 
greed of gain had dwarfed nobler and less selfish 
sentiments. There was, in those days, no instruction 
given regarding public affairs in our common schools; 



50 THE SHEKIDAN MEMORIAL. 

and even in most of our colleges there was no 
teaching of American history. The ordinary citizen 
of Massachusetts, of Pennsylvania, of Michigan, en- 
countered the Government of the United States 
literally at the door of the post-office only. Even 
the Fourth of July had degenerated into a mere 
barbaric festival of noise and boyish folly. 

Bnt the young cadet at West Point was deeply 
instructed, as a student, in his duties to his native 
land. Every morning he saw the flag of the United 
States run up the staff, amid the discharge of artil- 
lery, and at nightfall he heard it saluted as it fell. 
Under that flag he performed his mimic evolutions 
day by day, and all his life was lived in the- name 
of his country. His instructors were officers of the 
United States, many of them men who had shed 
their blood in its cause. How idle, then, to assume 
that the graduate of West Point was less imbued 
and instinct with patriotic sentiment than the graduate 
of Harvard or Yale! 

And when the boy put on the dress of manhood, 
it was the uniform of his country which he assumed. 
Duty to the country became the very subject-matter 
of his professional career, the source, at once, and 
the aim, the beginning and the end, of his official 
life. Still every morning the flag was saluted as it 
rose. Scarcely during the day did he pass out of 
the sight of that gay and glorious emblem of the 
nation's unity. 

Deep and pervasive as we may rightfully assume 
the feeling of patriotism to have been among the 



THE EULOGY. 51 

officers of the regular army in 1861, however per- 
verted by false political theories in the case of those 
who came from the South, we shall readily believe 
that in few did that feeling rise to a stronger pas- 
sion than in the breast of the active, ardent, impet- 
uous Sheridan. Far away from the seat of war, at 
an isolated post, where news came slowly and often 
came distorted by rumor and panic, the young 
lieutenant awaited the order which should summon 
him to the conffict. "We received our mail at Yam- 
hill only once a Aveek," he writes, " and then had to 
bring it from Portland, Oregon, by express. On the 
day of the week that our courier, or messenger, was 
expected back from Portland, I would go out early 
in the morning to a commanding point above the 
post, from which I could see a long distance down 
the road, as it ran through the valley of the Yam- 
hill, and there I would watch with anxiety for his 
coming, longing for good news.'' 

At last, in September, came the welcome intelli- 
gence that he had been promoted to a captaincy, 
and the still more welcome order to join his com- 
pany at the East. He brought to the scene of fierce 
and protracted conflict a frame naturally strong and 
thoroughly "trained" by campaigning experiences 
along the Pio Grande and in the J^orth-west. "So 
well hardened by my mountain service was I," he 
once said, in a speech to his former comrades, "it 
now seems to me, when I look back on what I 
went through, that I must have been almost insen- 
sible to fatigue." While history contains some exam- 



52 THE SHERIDAN MEMORIAL. 

pies of generals of feeble body conducting successful 
campaigns by pure power of mind and will, no one 
who knows what labors, vexations, and cares the 
daily course of military operations brings upon their 
responsible head will fail to recognize in this abound- 
ing vitality, this briskly burning fire of physical life, 
an instrument well worthy of the vivacious, alert, 
intrepid, indomitable spirit of the young soldier. 

On his arrival in St. Louis, Captain Sheridan was 
assigned to staff duty, and became the chief quarter- 
master and chief commmissary of subsistence to the 
army of General Curtis, then entering upon the cam- 
paign which culminated in the battle of Pea Ridge. 
His tireless energy soon achieved a marked success 
in the supply of the army; but his angry impatience 
with thieving contractors, and their weak or corrupt 
creatures in the service, ultimately caused his dis- 
placement; and the great cavalry commander of the 
future was sent aAvay from the field of operations to 
buy horses in JS'orthern markets! 

The news of the battle of Shiloh irresistibly drew 
Sheridan back to St. Louis, to beg employment in 
the field somewhere, somehow, against the enemy; 
and much to his joy, and inexpressibly to the bene- 
fit of the service, the opening was soon found. After 
a brief tour of staff duty at headquarters, he was 
appointed, by the Governor of Michigan, Colonel of 
the Second Cavalry regiment from that State. Li this 
most fortunate appointment lay, closely involved, the 
whole of one of the most remarkable careers in the 
history of war. Li few respects do men of great 



THE EULOGY. 53 

natural ability differ so widely as in the faculty of 
securing for themselves a place to work and to exert 
the power that is in them. There are men whom no 
circumstances can keep down; no misconception or 
official neglect will long avail to deny them oppor- 
tunity. Conscious of their powers, they assert them- 
selves vigorously against ignorance and stupidity; 
they push for place; and, first winning this, they 
proceed by heroic actions to show themselves worthy 
of it and of promotion from it. There are, also, 
men, equally capable of great achievements, who are 
absolutely dependent, in the first instance, upon 
recognition by others for their nov oru, — their place 
to stand and to exert the force that is in them. 
Not, perhaps, from excess of modesty, but because 
they lack the special faculty needed for advancing 
themselves, they may long, and possibly, so far as 
themselves are concerned, indefinitely, be left in places 
where no adequate opportunity offers for the exertion 
of their powers. But, from the moment they once 
get their feet down upon the ground, and a leverage 
on which to work, they become distinguished. Such 
a man was Grant; but this seems less strange because 
of his silent and reserved temper. Such a man, too, 
was Sheridan, in spite of his hearty, expressive, ex- 
pansive, spontaneous disposition. See him, in the 
second year of the war, without a command, engaged 
in petty and miscellaneous duties, while hundreds of 
men, without military experience or any considerable 
qualifications for service, had long been in positions 
which seemed to this splendid young officer, well 



54: THE SHERIDAN MEMORIAL. 

trained and well approved in action, almost too high 
for him ever to hope to attain! 

The credit of selecting Sheridan for the connnand 
of Second Michigan Cavalry is variously attributed. 
He himself, in his memoirs, seems inclined to think 
that the suggestion was due to Gen. Gordon Gran- 
ger. General Sherman had already proposed him to 
the Governor of Ohio for the colonelcy of a regi- 
ment from that State, but without result. It is cer- 
tain that, for the actual appointment, much was due 
to the warm and strenuous advocacy of Capt. Rus- 
sell A. Alger, an officer of that regiment, and after- 
wards Governor of Michigan. 

However it came about, the promotion brought as 
much surprise as delight to the young captain. And 
his manner of assuming his new command was sig- 
nificant and expressive of his whole subsequent 
career. That night, May 27, 1862, he joined his 
regiment at eight o'clock; and during the same 
night the trumpet sounded to horse for a raid upon 
the enemy's connnunications. "Dressed in a coat and 
trousers of a captain of infantry," he wrote, "but 
recast as a colonel of cavalry by a pair of well- 
worn eagles that General Granger had kindly given 
me, I hurriedly placed on my saddle a haversack 
containing some coffee, sugar, bacon, and hard bread, 
and, mounting my horse, reported my regiment to the 
brigade commander as ready for duty." 

I have said that Sheridan's manner of joining his 
regiment was significant of his whole subsequent 
career. The coat of a captain of infimtry, with a 



THE EULOGY. 55 

pair of eagles hastily seAvn upon the shoulders, may 
fairly represent the headlong rapidity of his advance 
in rank and in command. In only two weeks from 
the day he joined his regiment, on the eve of the 
raid to Booneville, Sheridan found himself, by the 
promotion of his superior, in command of his brigade. 
" Although but a few days," he writes, " had elapsed 
from the date of my appointment as Colonel of the 
Second Michigan, to that of my succeeding to the 
command of the brigade, I believe I can say with 
propriety that I had firmly established myself in the 
confidence of the officers and men of the regiment, 
and won their regard by thoughtful care. I had 
striven unceasingly to have them well fed and well 
clothed, had personally looked after the* selection of 
their camps, and maintained such a discipline as to 
allay former irritation." 

I have taken this extract from Sheridan's autobi- 
ography, so nnich in the vein of that previously 
given, because it is essential to a right understand- 
ing of his career that Ave should disabuse our minds 
of the notion, so prevalent, that his brilliant suc- 
cesses were due chiefly to impetuosity and daring. 
The wild rush, indeed, came in its time; force was 
transmuted into fury; savage blows were struck in 
quick succession. But the preparation for the day 
of conflict had been careful, patient, skilful. 

Sheridan had not long to wait to show his quality 
to the men who had sent him off to buy horses, on 
the eve of Shiloh. On the first of July, while in 
command of two regiments, at the perilously advanced 



56 THE SHERIDAN MEMORIAL.. 

post of Booneville, he was attacked by a cavalry 
column, consisting of six regiments and two battal- 
ions, under General Chalmers. Against such odds 
mere straightforward fighting, however gallant, could 
not long avail. The only way of escape was 
firmly and sharply to grasp the nettle, danger, and 
pluck from it the flower, safety. Despatching a 
small battalion, under Captain Alger, around the 
enemy's flank, Sheridan fell with all his remaining 
force upon their front. Disconcerted by the fury of 
the direct attack and the sudden appearance of Alger 
in their rear, the Confederates gave way in all direc- 
tions and fled from the field. The capacity for initi- 
ative here displayed, the ability boldly to take des- 
perate risks, and to assume the oflensive in face of 
seemingly hopeless odds, were thoroughly character- 
istic of Sheridan, and appear throughout his career 
in striking contrast to the conduct of the ordinary 
brigade or division commander, who would hold a 
position with stubborn courage till fairly swept away 
by force of numbers, or, if so ordered, would advance, 
against a torrent of fire, till half his men had fallen, 
but was destitute of enterprise and utterly incapable 
of original and si)ontaneous action. 

During the days following the action at Boone- 
ville, Sheridan's small brigade was successively reen- 
forced by one regiment and another of cavalry; but 
in the rapid backward movements and the extensive 
reorganization of troops which resulted from Bragg's 
invasion of Kentucky, Sheridan found himself, by the 
middle of September, at Louisville, with the so-called 



THE EULOGY. 57 

Pea Ridge brigade of infantry, a battery of artillery, 
and only the regiment of cavalry of which he was 
the lawful colonel. A few days later eight new regi- 
ments and an additional battery were assigned to 
him; and the yonng officer who had started out with 
such brilliant promise as a cavalry leader became, 
he scarcely knew how or when, the commander of 
a division of infantry in that splendid body of troops 
which came to be known as the Army of the Cum- 
berland. 

We have already seen enough of Philip Sheridan 
in his early career to know what sort of a division 
commander he became;^ while the names of Perry- 
ville [Oct. 8, 1862], Stone's river [Dec. 31, 1862, 
to Jan. 3, 1863], and Chickamauga [Sept. 19 
and 20, 1863] would give ample assurance, were 
one never to read the details of those desperate con- 
flicts, that all which his care and pains, his unrest- 
ing exertions, unfailing vigilance, and unflinching 
discipline could effect, in compacting, shaping, and 
tempering the excellent material placed under him, 
was proved, and tested, and tried to the utmost. 
The first of those sanguinary combats gave " Sheri- 
dan's division " a name throughout the army ; and 
each bloody battle that ensued heightened its repu- 
tation. His troops followed him into action with a 
confidence created by such care and pains as have 

^ Very striking testimony to Sheridan's remarkable skill in organizing and dis- 
ciplining raw troops is found in the fact that, of about fifty new regiments sent into 
Kentucky to aid in repelling Bragg's invasion, almost the only ones which, after the 
battle of Perryville, were incorporated into the column which returned to Tennessee 
were the eight forming the bulk of Sheridan's division. 



58 THE SHERIDAN MEMORIAL. 

been described, and with an enthusiasm engendered on 
the spot by his own matchless example of fiery valor. 

It was at Stone's river that the development of 
the battle brought into the strongest relief the sol- 
dierly character of Sheridan. Rosecrans, setting out 
from the vicinity of ]S"ashville, on the 26th of Decem- 
ber, 1862, had moved against the army of Bragg, 
intrenched along Stone's river, in front of Murfrees- 
borough. After incessant skirmishing and occasional 
severe fighting the enemy's line was, on the 30th, 
fully disclosed, and the several corps of the Union 
army took post with reference to an attack to be 
delivered by Crittenden's corps, at daybreak, against 
the Confederate right. But before Crittenden moved 
in the morning. General Bragg, taking the initiative 
with the audacity so characteristic of Confederate 
commanders, from first to last of the war, threw a 
powerful column from Hardee's corps upon the 
division of Johnson, which formed the Union right. 
Overwhelming Johnson with vast odds, the Confeder- 
ates, flushed with success, fell upon the division of 
Davis, attacking it at once in front and in flank, 
and drove it, bravely but uselessly fighting, out of 
its place in the Union line. 

Kext on the left lay the division of Sheridan; 
and upon its behavior, under these trying circum- 
stances, was to depend the fate of the battle; was 
to be decided whether the Confederates, gathering 
volume and fury as they tore up the Union line, 
should reach the I^ashville pike and throw the army 
of Rosecrans back in rout and disgrace. As the 



THE EULOGY. 59 

victorious troops of Hardee advanced from the west, 
threatening Sheridan's rear, the fresh division of 
Cheatham was thrown upon his front. It is in ^uch 
a time of trial that a commander reaps the fruits of 
discipline, and is rewarded for his long and patient 
moulding of his troops through all the tedious duties 
of the camp. :N'or was Sheridan unprepared for the 
shock. During the night he had gone to his corps 
commander with i-eports of active movements in the 
enemy's lines towards our right, and, though he could 
gain no credence for these reports, he had his own 
command in hand when the blow fell. Unshaken 
and undaunted, his regiments, led by brigadiers wor- 
thy of their troops and of their chief, met the shock 
with a resolution that rose as the conflict deepened, 
and, more than once, hurling the enemy back from 
his fiercest assault, charged him in turn across the 
bloody spaces of the battle-field. In such a charge fell 
the gallant and accomplished Sill, whose name will 
ever remain among the brightest of all who laid 
down their lives for liberty and country in the war 
for the Union. 

When, at last, the rapid advance of the turning 
column made longer occupation of his original line 
impossible, Sheridan drew his depleted brigades back 
to a point where he could still cover the flank of 
the enemy, and give time for the new dispositions 
which, in anguish of heart, Rosecrans was making 
to meet the pressing and terrible exigency that had 
arisen. In this position, which was one most desira-* 
ble to be occupied, Sheridan remained to the last 



60 THE SHERIDAN MEMORIAL. 

moment; but no reenforcements arriving from the left, 
and the exultant Confederates swarming- rapidly around 
his right and into his rear, he moved to the front, 
from his left flank, under a severe Are, and attached 
himself to the right of ISTegley's division, where, on 
rough ground, covered in part by growths of cedar, 
the undaunted soldier formed his men on two lines, — 
one fronting south, the other west, his artillery at 
the angle. Here, forming the extreme right of the 
Union army, and the only guard of its rear, he sus- 
tained for hours the furious assaults of Cheatham 
and Hardee. Here fell two more of his gallant bri- 
gade commanders and hundreds of his men, yet his 
line never for a moment wavered on either of its 
faces. 

At last, the arrangements for drawing the army 
into a new position having been completed, Sheridan 
let go his hold u^Don the rocky and wooded ridges 
to which he had clung with a steadfast courage that 
extorted the admiration of the foe; and, with no 
other loss than that of some guns which could not 
be drawn through the dense growth and tangled 
undergrowth of cedars, moved to his fourth and last 
position for the day. 

The present occasion does not allow me to speak 
of the fighting of the later afternoon, in which Sheri- 
dan lost still another brigade commander, — killed, — or 
of the operations of the 1st and 3d of January, which 
led to Bragg's surrendering Murfreesborough, not- 
withstanding the brilliant success which had attended 
his initiative on the morning of December 31. 



THE EULOGY. 51 

. In the battle of Chickamaiiga, September 19 and 
20, 1863, Sheridan's division was called to perform a 
part which was even more trying than that which 
devolved upon it at Stone's river. In consequence 
of a radical foult in General Rosecrans' dispositions, 
the troops comprising his right were incessantly re- 
quired to close in towards the left, always in the 
presence of the enemy, often under fire. Anything 
more dangerous, more trying to the morale of troop.^, 
it would be difiicult to conceive. In these desperate 
tactics, Sheridan, whose division had, at the begin- 
ning of the action, on the 19th, formed the extreme 
right, took, by necessity, the most active share, now 
having to move with the whole, now with a part of 
his command; this time to fill a gaping void in the 
line, that time to support some overborne division. 
At last, while passing with two of his brigades along 
the rear of Davis' division, under instructions to join 
Thomas on the extreme left, that division gave way 
before the savage assaults of Longstreet, and Sheridan 
found himself involved in furious battle with an enemy 
greatly superior in numbers, flushed with victory, and 
swarming in upon both his flanks. After the most 
stubborn resistance, in which one-third of the command 
fell, Sheridan was driven back to the Lafiiyette road. 
Here he learned that he was cut off. McCook, Crit- 
tenden, and even Rosecrans himself, had gone back to 
Chattanooga. Picking up a portion of Davis' division, 
under Carlin, and stragglers from other connnands, he 
made an eflbrt to reach Thomas through the Dry 
Creek Valley; but, finding that the enemy had already 



62 THE SHERIDAN MEMORIAL. 

occupied this road, he determined to move further to 
the rear, and to reach Thomas through Rossville. This 
he accomphshed, reporting about five o'clock to the 
lion-hearted commander of the left wing, who had all 
day been fighting against fearful odds, and who now, 
his back against the mountain- wall, stood alone to hold 
the direct road to Chattanooga. 

The last battle in which Sheridan, who had been 
made a Major-General for Stone's river, was engaged 
as a division commander, was on the glorious day 
when Grant, having broken the long blockade to 
which the Union army had been obliged to submit 
after Chickamauga, and having been reenforced by 
the troops of Sherman and of Hooker, moved out from 
Chattanooga to that great encounter which was to 
raise him to the command of all the armies of the 
United States. Bragg had inconsiderately weakened 
his army by the detachment of Longstreet's corps and 
Buckner's division, sent against Burnside in Ivnoxville. 
The strait into which Burnside was thus brought, not 
less than the opportunity offered by Bragg's diminished 
force, made it necessary for the Union commander 
to act at once and decisively. 

In the afternoon of the 23d of November, the divi- 
sion of T. J. Wood, supported by that of Sheridan, 
advanced from the works of Chattanooga into the 
valley which lay between them and Missionary Ridge, 
drove in the enemy's pickets, and established them- 
selves on Orchard Knob and the ridge to the 
right. Here, in extemporized rifle-pits, the troops 
sheltered themselves as well as they could under the 



THE EULOGY. 63 

artillery fire of the evening and of the succeeding- 
day. 

On the 24:th, Sherman, forming Grant's left, made 
an attack upon the noi'thern end of Missionary Ridge, 
which, though it did not succeed in its immediate ob- 
ject, won for him an advanced position, and had the 
effect to draw to his front large bodies of Confeder- 
ates, thus opening the way to Hooker, who, from the 
extreme right, advanced against the enemy's works 
on Lookout Mountain, which he gallantly carried in 
that famous action known as the Battle above the 
Clouds. 

Grant was now in possession of the entire valley, 
and his line had become continuous from Hooker to 
Sherman, while the enemy occupied Missionary Ridge 
alone. The Union commander therefore resolved to 
make the battle general and decisive on the morrow. 

It was once my good fortune, among a group of 
officers who had gathered to greet General Grant 
upon his arrival in the camps along the Rapidan, to 
hear the great commander tell the story of the 25th 
of November. The clear, strong statement, quiet in- 
tensity, and repressed enthusiasm of the narrator made 
upon my mind an impression which twenty-four years 
have scarcely obscured, yet which I cannot hope to 
reproduce to this audience. 

Substantially the whole Union line, for ten miles, 
was in view from Orchard Knob, the point occupied 
by the commander-in-chief, from Lookout Mountain, 
where Hooker lay after his victorious battle of the 
24th, down through the Chattanooga valley and across 



64 THE SHERIDAN MEMORIAL. 

the low plain from which Thomas' fom- divisions 
looked up the steep ascent of Missionary Ridge, far 
away to the left, where Sherman, crossing the north- 
ern end of the range and resting his flank on the 
Chickamauga river, stood prepared to open the 
action by an attempt to drive in Bragg's right flank 
and seize the Chattanooga and Cleveland Railroad. 
Simultaneously with Sherman's advance. Hooker was 
to move down the mountain and across the Chatta- 
nooga valley, menacing the Confederate position at 
the southern end of Missionary Ridge with his left 
wing, while throwing his right forward into the Con- 
federate left-rear at Rossville. Hooker's longer march 
would necessarily bring him into action some time 
after the battle had begun upon the left. Meanwhile 
Thomas, in the centre, was to await the success of 
Sherman's attack, or the wavering of the Confeder- 
ate lines from the approach of Hooker. 

Promptly at daylight Sherman moved forward from 
the advanced ground he had reached the day before, 
and attempted to carry the j^osition in his front, but 
was met and resisted by a supreme eftbrt of Confed- 
erate valor. Division after division was thrown into 
the fight, and the line of fire stretched eastward and 
stretched westward as Sherman brought up his re- 
serves, while Bragg drew largely from his intrench- 
ments along the whole extent of Missionary Ridge. 
At last it was even thought necessary to withdraw 
Baird's division from Thomas' command and send it 
to Sherman's support. 

A great battle had been raging on the left, yet 



THE EULOGY. 65 

nothing- had been heard from Hooker, who, with his 
large force, had long before been expected upon the 
enemy's flank, but had been detained by the destruc- 
tion of the bridges over the Chattanooga, and the 
consequent difficulty of crossing this stream, swollen 
high by violent rains. The day was fast passing; 
Sherman had gained no ground which he could 
hold; an hour more might even see the concentration 
against our left turn the battle into a Confederate 
victory; and, at last. Grant determined to order 
the advance of Thomas, which it had been his plan 
to reserve until the completion of Hooker's move- 
ment. The gallant divisions of Sheridan and Wood, 
gallantly led, charged across the plain against a 
heavy fire, and with loud cheers carried the enemy's 
works along the base of the ridge. Here they had 
been instructed to halt, re-form, and await further 
orders. But the j^osition was not tenable, under the 
fire from the crest. There was no choice but to go 
back or to go forward; and so, without orders, in a 
tumult of enthusiasm, these splendid troops, followed 
close ^ by Baird upon the left, and Johnson upon the 
right, amid a storm of lead and iron hail, swept up 
the hill, brigade vying with brigade, color-bearer with 
color-bearer, company with company, which should 
be first at the top. Bragg's line along the crest, 
though weakened by successive detachments, fought 
bravely for their works and their guns; but the 

' In thus assigning a slight priority of movement on the part of the divisions 
of Sheridan and AVood, I follow General Grant's Memoirs. I feel fully justi- 
fied in doing so, notwithstanding the contradictions of certain writers. 



GG THE SHERIDAN MEMORIAL. 

Union troops would not be denied. At a score of 
points they poured over the Confederate intrench- 
ments, and the position was won. 

Partly owing to the fact that the direct attack by 
Thomas, in anticipation of success by Sherman or the 
appearance of Hooker, had not been in the original 
plan of the battle, partly owing to the near approach of 
night, the victory thus gained was not improved as it 
should have been. Sheridan, indeed, alone and unsup- 
ported, drove the enemy rapidly before him through the 
valley, and attacked them vigorously upon another ridge, 
where they had made a stand, carrying the position and 
capturing guns and prisoners; but he soon found him- 
self without supports, far in advance of the rest of the 
army, in the face of large masses, which, though beaten, 
were still resolute, and, under these circumstances, had 
no choice but to halt his panting troops. 

In thus following up the enemy retreating from Mis- 
sionary Kidge, while other divisions rested content with 
what they had gained, Sheridan showed high soldierly 
quality. " To his prompt movement," says General 
Grant, " the Army of the Cumberland and the nation are 
indebted for the bulk of the capture of prisoners, artillery, 
and small-arms that day." 

The victory of the 25th of November was decisive 
of the fortunes, not of Grant only, but also of Sheridan. 

When the hero of Donelson, Yicksburg, and Chat- 
tanooga, having been created lieutenant-general, and 
constituted commander-in-chief of all the armies in the 
field, decided himself to make the campaign of 1864 
with the Army of the Potomac, he looked around among 



THE EULOGY. 67 

all the officers he had known, personally or by repute, for 
some man who could wield the splendid Eastern cavalry 
with the hand of a master and the soul of a hero. For 
the infantry he had Hancock and Sedgwick and "Warren, 
— men who had measured themselves in many a desperate 
battle against the foremost chieftains of the South, and 
had been found wanting in none; men who could do 
with infantry all that infantry was capable of. At the 
head of his superb artillery he found Hunt, — an artillerist 
of matchless skill. But for the cavalry the man was 
wanting; and, indeed, up to that time the ]N"orthern 
army, east or west, had not produced one cavalry leader 
of the first class, while the South had Stuart and Forrest. 
At the beginning of the war the mounted service of 
the United States had been subject to grave disadvan- 
tages, almost justifying the reluctance of the government 
to admit extensive recruiting for this arm. The great 
majority of those who became cavalrymen knew little 
about horses, and had none of the instincts which stand 
related to horsemanship. The southern cavalry, on the 
other hand, was composed of men who had been in the 
saddle from childhood. Completely masters of their 
horses, they knew well how to serve them: to care, to 
tend, to groom, to water, to feed, to picket, to shelter. 
Moreover, the Southern cavalryman was an adept in 
v/oodcraft ; able to " orient " himself quickly and surely in 
the most tangled forest ; shrewd at conjecturing the course 
of a stream or the trend of a range ; skilled in search- 
ing out paths in the rockiest mountains and fords in 
the swiftest I'ivers. It followed that, during the first 
year or year and a half, the mounted service of the 



68 THE SHEKIDAX MEMOKIAL. 

Confederate army had an immense, an almost Indicrous 
superiority. Gradually, however, the resolute purpose 
and steady application of the Puritan began to tell. 
Little by little the grim cavalrymen in blue gained upon 
the dashing and picturesque cavaliers in gray. The 
horse ceased to be a terror to his rider; the rider, to 
be a torture to his horse. The question, "Who ever 
saw a dead cavalryman? " lost all the humor it once 
conveyed. Charges were actually made, and sabres 
were really crossed, at first much to the astonishment 
of their antagonists. Then stubborn battles were 
fought. Here and there, under officers of peculiar 
merit, like Bayard and Davis, the performance of the 
IS^orthern horse became absolutely brilliant. 

But it was Hooker who gave to this arm of the 
service the greatest impulse and inspiration. It was 
under that gallant, but unfortunate, chieftain that the 
cavalry divisions of the Army of the Potomac became 
the firm, compact, highly disciplined bodies which, com- 
manded by thorough soldiers, like Gregg and Buford, 
with such admirable brigadiers as Merritt, Farns- 
worth, Custer, and Devin, encountered the splendid 
Southern cavalry on equal terms at Brandy Station, 
Aldie, and Gettysburg. 

Such, roughly sketched, had been the history of 
the mounted service in the Union army down to the 
close of 1863. With a distinctly lower aptitude for 
such a service on the part of the Northern people, 
it had taken the cavalry two years to reach that 
perfection of discipline and efficiency which the 
infantry had attained in one. But the great leader 



THE EULOGY. (JQ 

of the Northern horse was yet to appear: the man 
who could handle an entire corps of cavahy with 
the freedom and force of a real master. He came 
on that day, when, looking around on all the reso- 
lute, stubborn, energetic, enterprising officers, whose 
actions he had observed from Belmont to Chat- 
tanooga, the lieutenant-general selected Sheridan for 
this difficult and responsible charge. On the 5th of 
April the new connnander arrived at the headquar- 
ters of the cavalry corps, between the Rappahannock 
and the Rapidan. 

Sheridan's Memoirs show how doubtfully his ap- 
pointment was received at Washington and at head- 
quarters in the field. It did, indeed, seem absurd to 
bring an infantry officer from the West, to place him 
over the gallant and accomplished soldiers who had 
fought their way up to the head of the cavalry 
divisions of the Army of the Potomac. But Sheridan 
gave the sceptical little time to indulge their doubts 
and distrust. After a few days spent in protecting 
the flanks of the Potomac Army and guarding its 
trains, during the crossing of the Rapidan and the 
march to Spottsylvania, May 5-8, operations in which 
the corps ,was necessarily broken up to act by di- 
visions, and even by brigades, as so generally in the 
past, Sheridan obtained leave to mass his force 
and seek and find the Southern cavalry. He had 
bitterly and, it must be confessed, not overcourte- 
ously complained to General Meade that his com- 
binations had been broken up by orders given 
directly to his division commanders, and that his 



70 THE sheeida:n^ memorial. 

troops had been needlessly scattered. The result of 
the mterview with Meade is best told in Sheridan's 
words : " After I left him he Avent to General Grant's 
headquarters and repeated the conversation to him, 
mentioning that I had said that I could whip 
Stuart. At this General Grant remarked: ^ Did he say 
so? Then let him go out and do it.'" 

Joyfully receiving the permission thus accorded, 
Sheridan, on the morning of the 9th of May, drew 
together his three divisions, under Gregg, Merritt, 
and AVilson, and moving around the right of the 
Confederate army, fighting front and rear with Stuart's 
force, he, next day, struck the Virginia Central, 
destroying the road, capturing large quantities of 
rolling-stock and army supplies, and recapturing 
many Union jirisoners taken in the battles around 
Spottsylvania. On the 11th, after cutting up the 
Fredericksburg road at Ashland, destroying trains 
and stores, the whole command moved forward against 
Stuart's force, which was concentrated at Yellow 
Tavern, six miles from Richmond. Sheridan, who had 
" gone out," under a ^^I'^mise to " whip Stuart," 
joined issue at once, opening with Merritt's division, 
and following this up with AYilson's and one of 
Gregg's brigades. The Confederates fought with that 
brilliant audacity and stubborn courage which they had 
shown in many a raid and many a battle. They were 
led by the delight of the Southern chivalry, the ro- 
mantic, daring cavalryman who, from the time he led 
his troops around the rear of McClellan's army on 
the Peninsula, had never ceased to be an inspiration 



THE EULOGY. 71 

to his soldiers and a terror to his foes. The battle 
was fiercely contested ; but at last, in a gallant 
charge by Custer, Stuart fell fighting, and the Con- 
federate line gave Avay at all points. Gregg then 
turned ui:)on the force which, under Gen. James B. 
Gordon, had all along been hanging upon the Union 
rear, and drove it away, its commander being among 
the killed. 

The victory at Yellow Tavern was complete. Sher- 
idan, resuming his march that night, j^artly encircled 
the fortifications of Richmond, engaging both infantry 
and cavalry, and, crossing at Meadow Bridge, pro- 
ceeded, in pursuance of his instructions, to Haxall's 
Landing, where he obtained supplies and ammuni- 
tion from General Butler's command, regaining the 
Army of the Potomac in season to take part in the 
operations along the ]^orth Anna. The influence of 
this successful raid was felt throughout the remain- 
der of the war. The Union cavalry had acquired a 
confidence in itself never before known ; the spirit 
of united action and of mutual support was infused 
throughout the corjis, and the title of its new leader 
to the command was confirmed by a patent which 
none could dispute. 

Time will not serve to tell the story of Hawes' 
shop on the 28th of May, where our cavalry en- 
countered and again defeated the Confederates, heavily 
reenforced by the arrival of M. C. Butler's command 
from the South; of Cold Harbor, which Sheridan 
seized, on the 31st of May, in anticipation of orders, 
and held, through the following morning, until the 



72 THE SHERIDAN MEMORIAL. 

arrival of the Sixth Corps, against repeated attacks 
of both infantry and cavahy — aUis ! only to prepare 
the way for the great disaster of the 3d of Jnne; of 
Trevillian Station, on the Yirginia Central, where, 
during an extensive raid, undertaken with a view to 
cooperate with General Hunter, then moving up the 
valley, Sheridan, on the 11th, with two divisions of 
his corps, attacking Fitzhugh Lee and Hampton, 
both front and rear, drove the Confederate cavalry 
from his path; of Mallory's Cross Roads, the following 
day, where Torbert's division again engaged Hamp- 
ton in a bloody but indecisive action, with no small 
loss to himself; of St. Mary's Church, where Gregg, 
Avhile covering the passage of the vast trains of the 
Potomac army, was vehemently attacked by greatly 
superior force, and, gallantly resisting, was driven 
in towards Charles City Court House, yet so slowly 
as to secure the entire safety of his charge; of Reams' 
Station, where Wilson, returning from a successful 
expedition against the Lynchburg and Danville rail- 
roads, on which he had l3een sent during Sheridan's 
absence upon the Trevillian raid, was caught, June 
28th, by Hampton and Fitzhugh Lee, supported hy 
infantry under Mahone, and, from not being prop- 
erly supported from the left wing of the Potomac 
army, suffered severe punishment ; or, finally, of the 
expedition to the north side of the James river, un- 
dertaken by Shei-idan, in conjunction with Hancock's 
Corps, between the 26th and 30th of July, in which 
the cavalry again successfully encountered the enemy, 
both horse and foot. 



THE EULOGY. 73 

An incident of the last-named operations, which 
fell under my personal observation, appears to me 
so far significant of the military character and methods 
of the two illustrious commanders wiio were joined 
in that expedition, as to justify the time that will be 
taken to narrate it. 

After the reconnoisances of the 27th of July had 
convinced General Grant that his information regard- 
ing the force of the enemy north of the James was 
incorrect, he abandoned his original plan, which had 
been to drive the enemy in to Chapin's Bluff, and 
thus lay open the Avay for Sheridan to proceed against 
the tAvo railroads north of Richmond, or even, possi- 
bly, against the city itself. Instead of this. Grant re- 
solved that the fact that the enemy, in anticipation 
of our movement, had despatched Wilcox's and Ker- 
shaw's divisions from Petersburg, should be made 
use of for the benefit of Burnside, whose " mine " had 
now been brought to completion, Hancock and 
Sheridan were directed, therefore, to keep up their 
demonstrations, in order to draw over as many of 
the enemy as possible. These instructions were obeyed 
with so much spirit that General Lee, fully believ- 
ing that the whole strength of the Union army 
was to be exerted in an effort to take Richmond 
by a direct advance from Deep Bottom, concentrated 
no less than five of his eight divisions of infantry, 
and nearly all his cavalry, on the north bank of 
the James, while twenty miles away, the Fifth, Ninth, 
and Eighteenth Corps stood ready to enter Peters- 
burg thi'ough the hideous avenue which should, on 



74 THE SHEKIDAJS^ MEMORIAL. 

the 30th, be laid open by the exj^losion of Burnside's 
mine. 

!N^ot content with this superiority of force, General 
Grant, on the 28th, directed Hancock to send Mott's 
division, comj^rising- nearly half of his infantry, back 
to Petersburg, to relieve Ord's Eighteenth Corps in 
the intrenchments. Hancock, who was in general 
command of the expedition, was thus to be left, all 
day of the 29th, with about eight thousand foot 
and the cavalry, to confront two-thirds of Lee's army, 
the James river at his back. The 25t)sition was dan- 
gerous in the extreme. The cavalry were during the 
night to be sent across the river, there to dismount, 
and, returning, assist the infjintry in holding their 
perilously extended lines. Emphatic orders were 
issued regarding the movement, it being explicitly 
directed that none of the cavalry should continue 
crossing after daylight; all the orders were duly issued 
and receipted for; and then headquarters sank to rest, 
every one fatigued and worn out by the exertions of 
the three preceding days and nights. Before daybreak 
I was wakened by hearing General Hancock calling 
to me from his tent. Accoutred as I was, I presented 
myself. " Colonel, I am anxious about the cavalry 
crossing: go to General Sheridan and say that not 
a man should go upon the bridge after it is light 
enough to see." I jumped upon a convenient casual 
horse and galloped to Sheridan's headquarters, in 
the edge of a wood, near by. As I approached, the 
first voice I heard was not that of a sentinel or a 
staff officer, but that of the great cavalryman himself. 



THE EULOGY. ' 75 

"AVTio is that?" I gave my message. "I was think- 
ing of the same thing. Forsyth, ride to the bridge, 
and, if General Kautz has not crossed, tell him he 
cannot do so. Let him mass his division behind 
the woods, on this side." Forsyth and I rode off 
together. Da}' Avas jnst breaking, and with it Kautz 
was about entering upon the bridge. But for this 
extra precaution the enemy, who had been all night 
craning their necks from Chapin's Farm, listening to 
the low rumbling sounds and wondering which way 
the movement was taking place, would, fifteen minutes 
later, have seen the cavalry on the bridge, going back 
across the river, and would, in all probability, have 
swooped down upon Hancock's small force and driven 
it into the James. As it turned out, what the eager 
Confederates saw, as the light increased, was the dis- 
mounted cavahy returning, their carbines over their 
shoulders, looking, for all the world, like honest in- 
fantry, apparently the rear of a column that had been 
crossing all night. The effect on the Confederate 
commanders was immense. ]S'ot only did they refrain 
from assuming the aggressive, with their vastly su- 
perior force, but all day long they awaited an attack 
Avith evident imeasiness. General Miles reporting from 
the skirmish line that their troops were not allowed 
to leave the intrenchments for dinner. 

My story bears its moral. Sheridan and Hancock 
were perhaps the tAVO officers of the Union army 
whom men are most apt to think of as carrying every- 
thing by storm, through sheer force of will, brilliancy 
of conception, and command over men. Yet here we 



76 THE SHERIDAX MEMORIAL. 

see them lying awake, after great fatigues, in the 
short hours of a summer night, running, in their 
minds, over the Avhole field of the morrow's duty, 
weighing all adverse chances and providing against 
every possible miscarriage or misadventure. How 
many lost opportunities in the war for the Union, 
how many defeats and disasters sustained, Avere due 
to the fact that officers of high rank, in important 
commands, deemed that they had done their whole 
duty when they had given the right orders. Such is 
not the spirit and method of a successful commander. 
That Avas not the way of Sheridan and of Han- 
cock. They took pains to give the right orders, and 
then stood by to see them executed, and to watch 
against the thousand hostile contingencies which be- 
set the best concerted schemes. 

Sheridan's career as the commander of the Cavalry 
Corps, which was to close with the expedition last 
mentioned, had not been one of unbroken victory. 
He was no god of war, w^hose presence should chase 
the enemy from the field, and init armies to flight. 
He was opposed by a gallant body of cavalry, gal- 
lantly and skilfully led; 3^et his success had been 
as decided in his new field as at the head of a 
division in the Army of the Cumberland. He 
had shown himself a great captain of horse, a real 
master of men. Whether in the care and discipline 
of his troops, or in the conduct of long, rapid, and 
critical marches; whether in his dispositions for bat- 
tle on a large scale, or in the spirit which he in- 
fused into his soldiers under fire, he had approved 



THE EULOGY. 77 

himself a corps commander of the highest class, as 
capable in dealing with cavalry as was Hancock in 
dealing with infantry. 

While Sheridan had thns achieved success in the 
important position to Avhich he had been j)i*omoted 
in a way so remarkable, it could not with assur- 
ance have been said, at the end of July, 1864, that 
he possessed all the quahties, in due proportion and 
combination, which are required for the leader of 
an army in the field. Promise of this, indeed, there 
had been, — promise abundant; but the history of war 
contains many instances of successful corps com- 
manders who have failed in taking the next step. 
"While thus, no one could, on the day I named, 
have known that Sheridan would bear that perilous 
l^romotion, there was one man Avho thoroughly be- 
lieved it, and that man was the lieutenant-gen- 
eral who, on the 1st of August, despatched Sheridan 
to Harper's Ferry, to take command of the infantry 
of Wright, Emory, and Crook, with Torbert's and 
Averell's cavalry, confronting the army of General 
Jubal A. Early, then occupying the Yalley of 
Yirginia, and i-aiding at will northward into Penn- 
sylvania. For the purpose of giving Sheridan a 
sufficient range of operations. General Hunter had 
patriotically withdrawn from his command; and four 
geographical departments were consolidated to form 
the Middle Military Division. Again, as at the 
transfer of Sheridan to the East, the President and 
Secretary Stanton were doubtful in their minds, ]nit 
acquiesced in the decision of the lieutenant-general. 



78 THE SHEKIDAX MEMORIAL. 

In preparation for the campaign about to open, 
Sheridan, who, even when but a division commander 
in the West, had been famous for his management 
of scouts and spies, organized a secret service, which 
was probal^ly the best known upon our side during 
the war, and to which in liis Memoirs he generously 
assigns a large share of his subsequent success. I^o 
qualification of a commander is of greater importance 
than the ability to select the right men for this diffi- 
cult and perilous office; to attach them strongly to 
himself; to become completely master of their minds 
and wills; and to inspire them with such enthusiasm for 
their dangerous but fascinating duties that they will 
spare no pains and shrink froui no risks. One has only 
to compare the secret service of Sheridan Avith that of 
McClellan, to appreciate the immense advantage which 
may result from a j^roper use of this agency in war. 

The army of Early was somewhat smaller than that 
which Sheridan could muster for offensive movements, 
after the innumerable detachments which the situation 
required him to make, for covering Washington, Balti- 
more, the Ohio Kailroad, and a score of points; but, 
while Sheridan could only receive reenforcements by 
long and circuitous routes, Early's forces were liable 
to be swollen largely, almost Avithout notice, by de- 
tachments froui Lee. This was the peril which had 
always beset the Union commanders in the valley 
of Yirginia: that region which had for years been 
so full of disaster to our arms as to give it the 
name, '' The Yalley of Humiliation." 

On the 10th of August Sheridan commenced his 



THE EULOGY. 79 

march up the valley, driving Early before him. Con- 
stant skirmishing took place between the two armies, 
until, on the 14th, Sheridan occupied the line of 
Cedar Creek, near Strasburg. That very day he re- 
ceived intelligence that two divisions of infantry and 
one of cavalry, with twenty guns, had been sent 
from Lee's army, in the hope of crushing him in his 
advanced position. A retreat was, therefore, impera- 
tive; and though it was a bitter thing to do in the 
eyes of the whole nation, so soon after his accession 
to command, he at once commenced a retrograde 
movement upon IIallto\vn, near Harper's Ferry, de- 
stroying, b}^ General Grant's order, stores and crops 
as he i^assed down the valley. 

A vehement outcry was raised against this course, 
but the sound judgment of the nation has fully ap- 
jjroved it as a proper act of war. From the outbreak 
of the rebellion, the crops of the valley of Virginia 
had not been made use of mainly for the subsistence 
of its inhabitants, but had been a principal source 
of supply for Lee's army defending Richmond. At 
times the authorities even saved themselves the trouble 
of transporting the teeming stores of grain from the 
valley, and sent whole divisions thither to recruit. 
Moreover, the topographical features of the region 
were such as to place our commanders in a posi- 
tion of most unfair disadvantage, neutralizing superi- 
ority of military force, and often bringing to grief 
the best-planned operations. If it was right to wage 
the war for the Union, it was right to make the 
valley of Virginia, for the time, a desert. 



80 THE SHERIDAN^ MEMORIAJL. 

Sheridan's withdrawal, whicli was conducted with 
such skill and such instant readiness to assume the 
tactical aggressive that, though it was sharply fol- 
lowed up, no advantage was obtained by the enemy, 
and the spirit of the retreating army was not impaired, 
was yet of a nature to cause grave apprehensions 
throughout the JS^orth, and a new invasion was deemed 
not improbable. If General Lee entertained such a 
purpose, it was disconcerted by Sheridan's restless 
energy. To him a retreat did not mean running 
away; nor was a defensive attitude one of inactivity. 
He thrust his cavalry out in every direction, often 
supported by infantry, threatening here, attacking 
there, keeping the enemy continually on the alert, 
and always intimating a renewal of the aggressive. 
Such a commander was literally of no use to the 
Confederate army; and interfered seriously with the 
plan so long successfully pursued, of making one 
division count for two, by calling it in whenever 
required at Richmond, and sending it out whenever a 
spasm of activity seized the Union generals in the 
valley. 

Sheridan was not a man to be kept passive in 
his intrenchments by Quaker guns, or allow troops 
to be despatched from his front without holding his 
antagonist to strict and instant account. Within a 
few days he was again moving up the valley, closely 
following Ewell, on whom Lee was urgently calling 
for the two divisions of Anderson, so much needed 
at Richmond and Petersburg. On the 3d of Sep- 
tember Crook's Corps casually encountered Kershaw's 



THE EULOGY. 81 

division actually on the march to Richmond. The 
celerity and eagerness with which the Union advance 
was being prosecuted, caused Early for some days 
longer to retain Anderson's command. Constant 
skirmishing continued until the 16th, when intelli- 
gence was received from a ftiithful Union woman in 
Winchester, that, in response to urgent orders from 
Richmond, Kershaw's division was again on the march 
through Chester Gap southward. Allowing him, this 
time, "three days' grace" to get foirly out of the 
way, Sheridan, on the 19th of September, the first 
anniversary of Chipkamauga, rapidly advancing his 
troops, in the early morning, seized the fords of the 
Opequon, and began pouring the Sixth and ^NTineteenth 
Corps down the Berryville pike, hoping to overwhelm 
Early's two divisions stationed along the stream, 
before the remaining divisions, those of Rodes and 
Gordon, could be recalled from Martinsburg, whither 
they had gone to operate against the Baltimore and 
Ohio road. Meanwhile, Torbert, with Merritt's and 
Averell's cavalry, moving by way of Stephenson's 
Depot, was to strike into the Confederate rear; and 
Crook's small infiintry corps was, at the proper 
moment, to be thrown, as a turning column, towards 
the valley pike, south of the town. But Rodes and 
Gordon had, the night before, taken the route to 
Winchester, while the difficulty of pushing the Sixth 
and ^Nineteenth Corps through the narrow defile west 
of the Opequon, completely commanded as that was 
by the Confederate artillery, was found much greater 
than had been anticipated. Before om* troops had 



82 THE SHERIDAN MEMORIAL. 

been fully formed for attack, Rodes and Gordon 
arrived upon the field, and striking into a gap be- 
tween the Sixth and ]S'ineteenth Corps, checked 
Sheridan's advance, and even threw a j)ortion of his 
line into confusion. Russell's division sprang vehe- 
mently into action and restored the line, though at 
the cost not only of many men, but also of its com- 
mander, one of the bravest, coolest, and most capable 
officers of the Union armies in the field. 

Time was now necessarily taken to rearrange the 
line of battle for a decisive charge, while Sheridan, 
hearing nothing from the cavalry, felt compelled, 
against great reluctance, to call up Crook's divisions. 
This reenforcement of the Union line caused it to 
overlap the Confederate left. As Crook advanced, the 
SAvinging movement was continued by Emory and by 
half of Wright's Corps. Crook's troops moving rap- 
idly, found the Confederate flank, at the moment when 
Torbert, driving before him the cavalry that had sought 
to withstand his advance from Stephenson's Depot, 
appeared upon the field. 

The time for final action had come. The com- 
mander-in-chief, riding along the lines, ordered a gen- 
eral advance from right to left. Our infantry threw 
themselves upon the foe with the utmost vigor, while 
Torl^ert's cavalry rode over horse, foot, and artillery 
in a splendid charge which gained the enemy's rear. 
Early's only hope Avas now to make, with his broken 
divisions, a stand at Winchester; liut soon the eager 
troops of Torbert gained his left as the victorious 
infantry swarmed upon his front, and again the Con- 



THE EULOGY. 83 

federates were in full retreat, only the fall of night 
putting a stop to our pursuit. 

The battle of the Opequon, or Winchester, thus 
gained, was a splendid victory for the ]Srorthern arms, 
doing much to redeem the ill-name which the valley 
of Virginia had long iDorne in the annals of the war. 
Beginning with a severe check, due to the rapid 
concentration of Early's forces and the unexpected 
delays in passing the Berryville canon, it was fought 
through to a successful issue by strong, prompt, 
decisive movements on the part of the Union com- 
mander. Both arms of the service were employed, 
in close conjunction, with the highest skill. If, owing 
to the assumed necessity of calling Crook's column 
into the line of battle, it did not result in the de- 
struction of Early's army, it inflicted upon it a stun- 
ning defeat, and established Sheridan's fame as the 
leader of an army. Five guns, nine battle-flags, and 
twenty-five hundred prisoners were the spoils of 
Winchester. The sense of relief experienced by the 
administration and the country was testified to by 
the action of the President in promptly appointing 
the successful commander a brigadier-general in the 
regular army. 

On the 20th of September Sheridan was in pur- 
suit of the enemy, who had taken up a position at 
Fisher's Hill. Here their front was covered by Tum- 
bling river, while the narrow valley, opening at this 
point for only three and a half miles, allowed the 
Confederates to fully man their intrenchments, with- 
out any apparent danger of being outflanked. But 



84 THE SHERIDAN MEMORIAL. 

Sheridan had in Crook — experienced in Indian fight- 
ing before the war, and since renowned as the con- 
queror of the Apaches — a lieutenant artful, skilful, 
and a master of woodcraft, well suited to the emer- 
gency. Hiding Crook's Corps away in dense woods 
by day, while making active demonstrations and brisk 
attacks with his other infantry, Sheridan advanced it, 
under cover of darkness, along the side of the moun- 
tain range, until, on the morning of the 22d, Crook 
had gained a position unperceived, opi3osite the Con- 
federate left. Then, Avhile Kicketts' division occupied 
the enemy's attention by its manoiuvres, the turning 
column swept down from the hillside into their rear. 
'No time was given them to recover from their dis- 
comfiture; Ricketts dashed forward to join Crook's 
left; all the Union troops pushed on in a general 
charge, and the Confederates, abandoning even the form 
of organization, sought refuge in precipitate flight. 
Sixteen guns and eleven hundred prisoners were the 
fruits of this victory, which, but for the failure of 
the cavalry to do the part assigned to them in cut- 
ting off the Confederate retreat, would have been 
overwhelming. Sheridan only halted his wearied sol- 
diers when they had pursued the enemy as far as 
Woodstock. In a few days the whole valley of Vir- 
ginia was in possession of the Union army. Grant, 
at Petersburg, ordered a hundred guns to hv fired, 
in each of the armies of the James and of the Poto- 
mac, on the news of the battle of Winchester, and 
a hundred more upon the reports from Fisher's Hill. 
The consternation at Kichmond corresponded to the 



THE EULOGY. 85 

rejoicing within the Union Hnes at Petersburg and 
Bermuda Hundred. For the moment it seemed as if 
nothing could stay this flood of success. But the 
armies of the American war, both ^orth and South, 
possessed a resihence and a power of recuperation 
from disaster to which human histoiy furnishes no 
parallel. Early was promptly reenforced hj the re- 
turn of Kershaw, while his own gallant troops, steady- 
ing themselves after their disaster, drew together, 
stern and defiant as ever. Hungry, ragged, and worn, 
baffled, defeated, and overborne, the men of Ramseur 
and Kodes, of Gordon and Breckinridge, in these 
dark days of the Confederacy, proved themselves 
worthy of the race from which they sprang. Less 
than a month was to pass before the divisions that 
had been sent " whirling up the valley " were to plunder 
the camps of the Sixth, Eighth, and ^N'ineteenth Corps. 

Important changes in the cavalry followed the ac- 
tions of September. General Sheridan had been 
greatly dissatisfied with the manner in which certain 
bodies had been handled during those operations. I 
cannot forbear to quote his despatch of September 
23d to one of his division commanders : — 

" I do not want you to let the enemy bluff you 
or your command, and I want you to distinctly 
understand this note. I do not advise rashness, but 
I do desire resolution and actual fighting, with neces- 
sary casualties, before you retire. There must now 
be no backing or filling by you without a superior 
force of the enemy actually engaging you." 

Sheridan's victories now brought up an important 



8G THE SHERIDAN MEMORIAL. 

question of general strategy, namely, whether he should 
take advantage of Early's defeat to move through the 
Blue Kidge into Eastern Virginia, and act in imme- 
diate cooperation with the forces threatening Rich- 
mond. This was Grant's view, but it was strongly 
opposed by Sheridan, for reasons in which the com- 
mander-in-chief finally concurred. Sheridan's opinion 
now appears clearly justified. The proposed opera- 
tions would have required the use of the Orange and 
Alexandria Kailroad, which would have occupied large 
bodies of troops for its defence. Moreover, it would 
have brought Sheridan's army within dangerously 
easy reach of Lee, enabling the Confederate com- 
mander to resort freely to the familiar plan of de- 
taching rapidly moving columns from the lines around 
Kichmond. Unquestionably, as we now see it, the 
true strategy was to keep Sheridan where he had 
done such good service, until the Southern army 
should be too much weakened to make any substan- 
tial detachment against him. 

Sheridan's view having prevailed, it became neces- 
sary for him to move back adown the valley, on 
account of the difficulty of bringing forward supplies. 
That movement began on the 6th of October, Sheri- 
dan complying with Grant's renewed instructions, by 
still further devastating the regions through which 
he passed. The enemy's cavalry following up our 
retreating troops with a traditional confidence which 
even recent events had not destroyed, Sheridan de- 
termined to give them a lesson, and accordingly 
turned upon Kosser, the new " Saviour of the Val- 



THE EULOGY. 87 

ley," with the divisions of Merritt and Cnster. After 
two hours' sharp fighting, the Confederates were 
thrown back in complete rout, and the Union cav- 
alry followed them upon the run, hardly drawing 
rein for twenty-six miles, capturing eleven guns and 
many prisoners. This action, indifferently known as 
the battle of Tom's Brook, or the "Woodstock Races, 
effectually broke up the Confederate cavalry, which, 
up to this time, had never known what it was to be 
used so, and which, in three years of desperate fight- 
ing, often against great odds, had always upheld its 
honor, whether in victory or in defeat. But the 8th 
of October saw the turning of that long contest in 
Avhich prestige, the spirit of aggressiveness, the en- 
thusiasm of battle, and the expectation of victory 
were with Southern horse. The balance had now 
settled definitively to the Union side; and these ad- 
vantages, added to a general superiority in numbers, 
deprived the Confederate cavalry, in its last estate, — 
I almost grieve to say it, — of somewhat of that dig- 
nity which the infantry of Lee's much-enduring army 
never lost, no, not when, mud-stained and tattered, 
hungry and worn, foint in body and few in num- 
bers, the survivors of Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, 
Gettysburg, and Spottsylvania hurried by night and 
by day along the road to Appomattox Court House. 
But of the Confederate cavalry, after Tom's Brook, 
we have to note a certain decline in spirit and tem- 
l^er. General Early never fiiils in any report to 
stigmatize their conduct, even declaring that he would 
be glad to dismount them, but that he fears their 



88 THE SHEKIDAN MEMOKIAL. 

example might demoralize the infantry. I would not 
place too great stress upon the complaints of an 
angry and disappointed man; but there can be no 
question that something like the change intimated 
had passed over the Southern horse. 

In 2)art, this was due to the gradual impoverish- 
ment of the Confederacy, affecting all arms, but 
l)earing with greatest weight upon the cavalry, as the 
most expensive branch of the service. In part, it 
was due to the fact that it Avas comparatively late 
in the war when the Southern horsemen came thor- 
oughly to know and to respect their antagonists. 
The Confederate infantry learned early in 1862 that 
they had foemen well worthy of their steel, at its 
brightest and its sharpest; and the vain-glorious and 
contemptuous spirit with which too many had set out 
on their career was exchanged for a truer soldierly 
spirit after the desperate battles of the Peninsula. 
But from the general causes previously indicated, and 
also because the real leader of the N^orthern horse 
appeared so late, the Southern cavalry retained their 
self-confidence and their contempt for their enemy too 
long for their own good as soldiers. A part, also, of 
the eifect we are considering was due to the activ- 
ity, the aggressive energy, the almost savage ferocity, 
which Sheridan had infused into the cavalry corps of 
the Army of the Potomac. 

On the 10th of October, the Union army crossed 
to the north side of Cedar Creek; and Sheridan, 
thinking that Early had been sufiiciently punished to 
make it safe, began to send the Sixth Corps back to 



THE EULOGY. 89 

Grant. But Early, always loyal to Lee. made his ap- 
pearance so promptly that the Sixth Corps was halted 
on its march. On the 13th, the Confederates, to 
make sure that troops Avere not being sent to Grant, 
sharply attacked such of Crook's troops as were on 
the south side of Cedar Creek and drove them over. 
Upon this, the Sixth Corps was brought back and 
placed upon the line of battle. On the night of the 
16th, Sheridan, in consequence of General Halleck's 
repeated requests for a personal conference, left his 
forces under the command of Gen. Horatio G. 
"Wright, and set out for a hurried trip to AYashing- 
ton, where he arrived on the morning of the 17th. 
Anxious about his army, Sheridan stayed at the 
capital only until noon, and then started to return 
to his command, by way of Martinsburg, which was 
reached at dark. From Martinsburg, the next day, 
accompanied by two engineer officers, who had l)een 
detailed to lay out a strong line of defensive Avorks 
in the valley, he proceeded to Winchester, where the 
remainder of the day Avas spent in examining the 
heights about that toAvn, Avith reference to their 
capabilities for defence. 

AVe noAV approach that day which, in j^ubhc esti- 
mation, will ahvays be the l^rightest and most glorious 
in Sheridan's career. To the military student, other 
battles have as high a degree of interest as Cedar 
Creek; but nothing in the history of Avarfare so fas- 
cinates the popular mind as victory snatched from 
the jaAVS of defeat, through the personal influence of 
a. great commander. Sheridan's power to acquire the 



90 THE SHERIDAK MEMORIAL. 

confidence of his men in camp, and to inspire them 
with martial enthusiasm in battle, had, indeed, been 
an element of his whole career; but the day which 
dawned upon the night he lay at Winchester was 
destined to witness a manifestation of that peculiar 
force so remarkable as profoundly to influence the 
imagination of the American people. 

The troops under General Wright were adequate 
either to hold a defensive line, or to encounter Early 
in an open fight; but the traditions of Stonewall 
Jackson had inspired every Confederate commander 
with a passion for flank attacks, and here the occa- 
sion offered itself. The Union position was, on the 
whole, a good one. Its right was, indeed, open; but 
to assail this the Confederates would have had to 
pass completely across our front, making their retreat, 
in case of repulse, a matter of grave doubt. There 
were, moreover, on this flank, two divisions of cavalry, 
to give notice of such a movement and to delay a 
hostile advance. The Union left, however, was but 
slightly held and carelessly observed, notwithstanding 
that the enemy in attacking here Avould have their 
lines of retreat well behind them. General Wright's 
reason for treating this end of the line with com- 
parative neglect was found in the character of the 
country, the Massanutten range at this point coming 
down to Cedar Creek in abrupt and ragged 
masses; but it must have been a very serious 
obstacle, indeed, which a Confederate column, bent 
on a flank attack upon a Union army, could not 
either cross or turn. During the night of the 18th, 



THE EULOGY. 91 

Gen. John B. Gordon, with three divisions, was sent 
across the river and aronnd the base of the moun- 
tain by a narrow foot-path, while Early's other two 
divisions were put into position to cooperate, at the 
critical moment, by an attack u]3on the Union front 
and right. 

The Confederate movements were made with secrecy 
and celerity. At break of day, Kershaw carried a 
small work on Wright's left, and, almost at the same 
moment, Gordon, having twice crossed the Shenan- 
doah on his stealthy march, broke upon the camps 
of Crook with an overwhelming force. The surprise 
was complete, the rout total. The position of the 
]S'ineteenth Corps, relative to the Eighth, was such 
that, when the latter was driven from its camps, the 
former was forced to retreat rapidly, to save itself 
from being taken in rear. This enabled the last 
Confederate division to cross the stream; and Early's 
line thus l)ecame continuous, with the enormous ad- 
vantage arising from the rout of Crook's command 
and the hasty retirement of Emory's. This advantage 
was availed of to the uttermost; and the rapid and 
furious advance of the enemy soon drove the Union 
army back, in more or less of disorder, much here, 
less there, until Getty's gallant division of the Sixth 
Corps, the heroes of twenty battles, bravely supported 
by the cavalry under Torbert, at last brought Early 
to a stand. The Union camps and a large part of 
the Union artillery were the fruits of this daringly 
conceived and skilfully executed attack. 

Meanwhile, where was Sheridan? Fatigued by the 



92 THE SHERIDAX 3IEMORIAL. 

yharp travelling of the three preceding days, the 
commander of the Middle Military Division had prom- 
ised himself a comfortable night's rest and a leisnrely 
breakfast before proceeding to camp; but at six 
o'clock it was reported from the outposts that artil- 
lery firing was to be heard in the direction of Cedar 
Creek, Wright had given information that Grover's 
division was to go out that morning on a recon- 
noisance, and the noise Avas naturally attributed to 
this. There was yet enough in it to make Sheridan 
restless, and orders were sent to " hiirry up the 
cook.'' Firing continued to be heard from the south, 
but not in a way to create alarm; and it was not 
until a little before nine o'clock that the staff rode 
down the streets of Winchester. 

The first intimation of anything unusual came from 
the sinister looks and insulting- gestures of the women, 
Avho, having doubtless obtained, by " grape-vine tele- 
graph," intelligence of Early's proposed attack, could 
not withhold the exhibition of their spite and rage. 
As the edge of the town was reached, the roar of 
artillery became continuous and more vehement; and 
Sheridan could no longer doubt that a considerable 
action was in progress; while the sounds that came 
up the pike, each moment 

Nearer, clearer, deadlier than before, 

told him that it was not alone his own motion, now 
quickened to a furious pace, but the rapid retreat of 
his soldiers, which made the sound of battle grow 



THE EULOGY. 93 

SO fast upon the ear. Sheridan had beneath him, 
that morning, the good horse, Rienzi, who had borne 
him in battle, from Perry vi lie down to this day of 
fate; and as the coal-black steed flung himself into 
the race that was a race for more than life, escort 
and staff drifted astern, like cargo flung from a ship 
that drives before the gale. Down the pike rushed 
horse and rider, until Sheridan found himself amid 
the Avreckage of the morning's battle, which had by 
this time floated miles away from the field of ac- 
tion. Here, in long and straggling procession, were 
hundreds of men slightly wounded, most of them 
still carrying their muskets. Hundreds there were, 
too, of men, unhurt, who had been struck by 
unreasoning panic in the rout of the early morning, 
and Avho quickened their flight at every fresh out- 
burst of^ artillery, miles to the rear. Hundreds more 
there were who, becoming separated from their regi- 
ments and companies, had lost their interest in the 
war; and, though as cool as ever they were in their 
lives, had set out for Winchester, and meant to get 
there, but were not in such haste that they could 
not stop, every now and then, to " make coffee " on 
the way. lYith this throng of fugitives were led 
horses and officers' servants, ammunition and baggage- 
wagons, and all that belongs in the rear of a line 
of battle. 

Tradition, popular fame, and poetry I'epresent 
Sheridan as pursuing his headlong ride to the very 
end; but he himself records that, when he met these 
stragglers and runaways, he stopped his horse and 



94 THE SHERIDA^^ MEMORIAL. 

listened to their reports of what had occurred, — re- 
ports which he was too old a soldier not to take for 
what they were worth; and, for a time thereafter, he 
proceeded at a slower pace, reflecting what should be 
done in this grave and terrible case. "As I con- 
tinued at a walk a few hundred yards farther," he 
says, " thinking all the time of Longstreet's telegram ^ 
to Early, "^ Be ready Avhen I join 3^ou, and we will 
crush Sheridan,' I was fixing in my mind what I 
should do. My first thought was to stop the army in 
the suburbs of Winchester, as it came back, form a 
new line, and fight there; but, as the situation was 
more maturely considered, a better conception pre- 
vailed. I was sure that the troops had confidence 
in me, for heretofore we had been successful; and 
as at other times they had seen me present at the 
slightest sign of trouble or distress, I felt that I 
ought to try now to restore their broken ranks." 

His plan formed, to fight as far to the front as 
might be, and^ if possible, to recover the lost camps, 
Sheridan quickened his pace; and, leaving the road, 
which had noAv become filled with wagons and 
wounded men, he struck into the fields, where he 
could give his brave Rienzi the rein. 

"When most of the wagons and wounded were 
past, I returned to the road, which was thickly lined 
with unhurt men, who, having got far enough to the 
rear to be out of danger, had halted, without any 

' A fictitious despatch intercepted by the Union signal officers and trans- 
mitted to Sheridan. Longstreet had, in reality, sent no such despatch, and 
was not on the march to the valley. 



THE EULOGY. 95 

organization, and begun cooking coffee; but when they 
saw me they abandoned their coffee, threw up their 
hats, shouldered their muskets, and, as I passed alon^-, 
turned to follow with enthusiasm and cheers. To ac- 
knowledge this exhibition of feeling I took off my 
hat, and with Forsyth and O'Keefe rode some dis- 
tance in advance of my escort, while every mounted 
officer who saw me galloped out on either side of 
the pike to tell the men at a distance that I had 
come back. In this way the news was spread to the 
stragglers off the road, when they, too, turned their 
faces towards the front and marched towards the 
enemy. I said nothing except to remark, as I rode 
among those on the road, 'If I had been with you 
this morning, this disaster would not have happened. 
We must face the other way; we will go back and 
recover our camp.' " 

To go back and recover the camp was now the 
word of the beaten army. The name of Sheridan 
spread from coffee-maker to coffee-maker, from strag- 
gler to straggler. Brave men who had forgotten 
themselves regained their manhood, as they saw the 
hero of Winchester galloping to the fore; the doubt- 
ful and feeble souls caught the impulse, and with 
cheers turned towards the bfittle-field; even the 
cowardly were ashamed, and floated back upon the 
tide. As he reached :N"ewtown, Sheridan was unable 
to get through the crowd, so great was the press, 
and was compelled to ride around the village; but 
the cry that Sheridan had come, now raised on every 
hand, soon melted this mass also, and, without organ- 



9(3 THE SHERIDAX MEMORIAL. 

ization and without leaders, the motley throng- of 
broken men from twenty regiments moved down the 
pike. 

When the Union commjinder, at about half-past ten, 
reached the front, he found Getty's division, with the 
cavalry, opposing a firm front to the enemy, about 
three miles from the line of the early morning. 
What remained of the IN^ineteenth Corps, with the other 
divisions of the Sixth, and a thin line, composed 
mainly of officers and color-beai-ers from the broken 
Eighth, occupied less advanced positions. There were, 
in fact, men enough; what was wanted was a leader; 
and a leader had come. At once Sheridan announced 
his purpose to go back and retake the camps. 
Officers and men caught fire at his words. The 
troops in the rear, ordered forward, came up on the 
double quick, with cheers. 

If the Confederate commander had been wise he 
would have retired across Cedar Creek on hearing 
those cheers. His remarkable success, at the opening" 
of the battle, had been due to surjirise; and, though 
his divisions had fought gallantly, it was not primarily 
their fighting which had beaten the Union troops, but 
the disadvantage at which the latter were placed. 
At nine o'clock Early had gained a victory which 
would have done much to hearten the Confederate 
armies, from the Shenandoah to the Mississippi. He 
should either have gone forward, giving Wright's 
army no time to re-form; or he should have jjromptly 
retired, carrying off, not onh^ the honors of the day, 
but all his prisoners and the twenty-four captured 



THE EULOGY. 97 

cannon. But Early was fascinated by the position he 
occupied, holding the camps of his enemy and threat- 
ening a fresh attack; while yet he hesitated to go 
forward, from fear of being assailed in flank by the 
now dreaded cavalry of Torbert. 

At length, somewhat past mid-day, Gordon advanced 
ujDon the ;N"ineteenth Corps, but was repulsed; and 
the two armies again fell into the attitude of watch- 
ing each other, while Sheridan exerted himself and 
employed the staff to the uttermost to bring up the 
men who had gone to the rear. Between half-past 
three and four the order to go forward was given 
to the whole Union line. In vain the Confederates 
resisted; in vain they took the initiative, with their 
customary audacity, and attempted to enwrap Sheri- 
dan's right. The Union cavalry, under Custer and 
Lowell, charged impetuously whenever occasion offered; 
the infantry vied with them in the rapidity of their 
advance. As they drove the enemy over the ground 
lost in the morning, the impulse grew, and the troops 
on the left forgot their orders to allow the right to 
swing around so as to cut Early off from retreat 
through Strasburg to Fisher's Hill. The whole line 
went forward — left, centre, and right — abreast; the 
camps were retaken; the Union guns found their 
rightful owners; and the Confederate divisions which 
had crossed Cedar Creek in the morning, to work 
such havoc, were driven back in confusion, and pur- 
sued till nightfall by the tireless cavalry. 

The battle of Cedar Creek raised Sheridan to the 
proud position of a major-general in the regular army 



98 THE shekida:n^ memorial. 

The commission Avas accompanied by a letter from 
Secretary Stanton, stating that it was given in recog- 
nition of "the personal gallantry, militar}^ skill, and 
just confidence in the courage and patriotism of your 
troops, displayed by you on the 19th of October, at 
Cedar Run, whereby, under the blessing of Provi- 
dence, your routed army was reorganized, a great 
national disaster averted, and a brilliant victory 
achieved over the rebels, for the third time, in j^itched 
battle, within thirty days." 

The action of the 19th of October practically closed 
the war in the valley of Virginia, though much of 
the infantry on both sides was retained there until 
winter actually set in; and though the irrepressible 
Early made a demonstration in ^November, in which 
his usual ill-fortune overtook him, his troops retiring 
after considerable losses. 

In the remarkable series of operations which have 
been thus hurriedly reviewed, Philip Sheridan had 
shown himself an army commander, in the largest 
sense of the term. His appointment, viewed at first 
with distrust at Washington, had been as fully approved, 
in the result, as had been his selection for the com- 
mand of the Cavalry Corps in the Api'il preceding. 
He had reclaimed the valley of Virginia from the 
grasp of the Confederates, and had converted its 
name from one of evil to one of good omen for the 
Union arms. He had encountered there the best 
troops of the Army of N^orthern Virginia, under its 
ablest commanders, and had defeated them severely 
and repeatedly. He had vigilantly guarded against 



THE EULOGY. 99 

the quick and secret despatch of troops to and from 
Richmond, which had formed a leading feature, an es- 
sential, and even the decisive part, of the Confederate 
strategy, ever since Johnston evaded Patterson, and, 
joining Beauregard at Manassas Junction, won for the 
Confederacy the battle of Bull Run. He had destroyed 
the prestige and shattered the organization of the once 
l^eerless Southern cavalry. He had captured from the 
Confederates not less than one hundred pieces of 
artillery, besides those retaken at Cedar Creek, forty- 
nine battle-flags, and thirteen thousand prisoners. 

^o purpose of eulogy would justify the assumption, 
even by silence, that Sheridan had won these great 
successes with no more than equal numbers. Troops 
like those which Early commanded, defending their 
own soil, with an inestimable advantage from secret 
intelligence, and operating in a region like the valley 
of Virginia, which had been the trap in which Union 
armies, under Fremont, Banks, Shields, Sigel, Hunter, 
and Milroy had been caught and baited, almost at 
the pleasure of their antagonists, for three years, were 
not to be defeated by equal numbers. The army of 
Sheridan was superior to that of Early, as the army 
of Grant was superior to that of Lee; as the army 
of Sherman was superior to that of Johnston. The 
glory of Sheridan is that, when he was given a 
superiority of force, he used it; used it actively, 
aggressively, unceasingly, relentlessly, until his enemy 
was destroyed. 

During the severe winter which followed, Sheridan 
occupied a fortified camp at Kernstown, sending to 



100 THE SHEKIDAX MEMORIAL. 

Grant the Sixth Corps and a portion of the Eighth, 
despatching the rest of the Eighth Corps to West 
Virginia, and retaining himself but one division of 
the ]S^ineteenth. Early remained in the vicinity of 
Staunton, with Rosser's cavalry and Wheaton's divi- 
sion of infantry, operating at intervals against the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. A cavahy expedition 
sent out hy Sheridan, in December, towards Charlottes- 
ville resulted disastrously, through the activity and 
audacity of the enemy and the extreme severity of 
the weather. 

It was in the last days of February, 1865, that 
Sheridan set out on that great movement which was 
destined, though not intended, to bring him again upon 
the left flank of the armies operating against Rich- 
mond and Petersburg. Moving up the valley, with 
Merritt's and Custer's divisions of cavalry, he encoun- 
tered a small force under Rosser, Avhich he defeated 
at Mt. Crawford, and, pushing on to Staunton and 
Waynesboro', he came at the latter place ujDon Early, 
who, with the pitifuU}' small remains of his once 
powerful army, had determined to make his last stand 
there. Over the intrenchments which sheltered the 
Confederates, Custer's cavalry charged with irresisti- 
ble force, capturing all the hostile infantry and many 
of their cavalry, with seventeen flags and eleven 
pieces of artillery. Early and his general officers, 
with a handful of personal followers, escaped by pre- 
cipitate flight. Thus ended, literally, the Confederate 
occupation of the valley of Virginia. 

The next day Sheridan moved to Charlottesville, 



THE EULOGY. 101 

where more prisoners and guns fell into the hands 
of the indefatigable Cnster. Sheridan then marched 
along' the James, thoroughly destroying the canal, 
intending to cross the river beloAV Lynchburg, and 
proceed to Appomattox Court House, destroy the 
Southside Railroad, Lee's main line of supply, as far 
as Farmville, and thence march southwards and join 
Sherman, in accordance with Grant's instructions. 
But the river was found too much swollen by recent 
rains to allow a crossing; the bridges had been burned 
by the Confederates; and Sheridan, availing himself 
of the discretion vested in him, determined to join 
Grant at Petersburg, breaking up the James river 
canal and the Virginia Central on the route. This 
was thoroughly done, one of the incidents of the 
march being Custer's pursuit of General Early, who, 
with one or two hundred men, was trying to make 
his way back to Lee. Some of his staff and escort 
were captured; but Early himself escaped across the 
South Anna, and, after a rapid flight, reached Kich- 
mond with a single orderly. 

On the 18th of March the Cavalry Corps arrived 
at White House, where supplies awaited them; and, 
after being thoroughly refreshed and rested, joined 
Grant's army before Petersburg. Here it was reen- 
forced by Gregg's division, now under Crook, which 
had remained with Meade when the other divisions 
Avent to the valley, in August. 

The beginning of the end had come. Throughout 
the long and distressing winter of 1864-65 no dream 
of ultimate triumph visited the Southern jDeople. All 



102 THE SHERIDAX MEMORIAL. 

hope of foreign intervention had long been abandoned. 
The cutting in twain of the Confederacy by the capt- 
ure of Vicksburg and the opening of the Missis- 
sippi; the close environment of the insurgent region 
by land and sea; the altogether unanticipated resolu- 
tion and devotion of the iS^orthern States; the horri- 
ble carnage wrought in the ever-thinning ranks of 
the Confederate army by that series of actions which, 
for frequency and for sanguinary ferocity, remain 
unequalled in the history of war; the bankruptcy of 
the Confederate treasury; the progressive impoverish- 
ment of the Southern fields: all these causes had 
combined to extinguish the last thoughts of inde- 
pendence. But the Southern leaders were resolved 
to hold out, in hope of obtaining terms of surrender 
which should at least save the institution of slavery; 
and the Southern army, heroic to the bitter end, was 
still ready to fight for honor, if not for victory. 

On the 29th of March General Lee occupied a 
line covering Richmond and Petersburg, which Grant's 
successive extensions towards the left, reaching out 
after the Southside Raih-oad, had caused to be peril- 
ously extended. To fill his forty miles of intrench- 
ments, Lee had but the scanty remains of the great 
army that had so long fought for the defence of the 
Southern capital. The cradle and the grave had been 
robbed to recruit its i-anks. Yet thin as were those 
lines, they were so strongly fortified and so stoutly 
held that the Union commander might well hesitate 
to drive his columns against them. iS^or was this 
needful. Far away to the south-west was a point at 



THE EULOGY. 103 

which Lee's army could be assailed even more effect- 
ually than through a wide breach, had such existed, 
in its intrenched lines. This was Five Forks, an 
important junction of roads, fifteen miles or so from 
Petersburg. A competent Union force, reaching and 
holding this point, could raid at will upon the South- 
side Eailroad, the great artery of the Confederate 
army. 

On the day I have named, March 29, Sheridan 
set out for Dinwiddle Court House, with the full 
strength of the Cavalry Corps, while two infantry 
corps, the Fifth and the Second, left the intrenched 
lines to follow in support. ^N'ight saw the Second 
Corps, under Humphreys, confronting the Confederate 
works west of Hatcher's Run; the Fifth, imder War- 
ren, holding the Quaker road after a sharp fight 
with Anderson; while, on the extreme left, the cavalry 
had gained its assigned position in front of Din- 
widdle. 

The constraint brought upon General Lee by the 
movement on Five Forks was a j^ainful one; but, 
trying as the situation was, Lee met it with that 
remarkable fortitude which characterized his whole 
career. Pickett's division was marched across the 
Confederate rear from Bermuda Hundred to Five 
Forks; Hill's troops were stretched further along the 
White Oak road; while Bushrod Johnson's division 
and Wise's brigade were sent to oppose Warren on 
the Quaker road. Thus did Lee answer Grrant's 
movements of the 29th of March. 

The 30th witnessed no events of importance, for a 



104 THE SHEKIDAN MEMORIAL, 

fearfnl downpour, lasting all day, flooded the low, 
swampy, tangled country in which these operations 
were conducted, and rendered the miry roads im- 
passible for either artillery or trains. So gloomy was 
the outlook that General Grant directed that the 
movement be suspended, and even that a portion of 
the cavalry be sent back to a point where supplies 
could more readily be obtained; but the entreaties of 
Kawlings, his chief of staff', reenforced by the argu- 
ments of Sheridan, who rode back to remonstrate 
against what he deemed a fatal mistake, induced 
Grant to withdraw the order. Meanwhile the Union 
lines were being straightened, connections established, 
and reconnoisances pushed out, in spite of rain and 
mud. On the extreme left, a force of cavalry, mov- 
ing towards Five Forks, encountered the enemy in 
position. 

The 31st of March brought weather that admitted 
movement, and Warren advanced to seize the White 
Oak road. So full-fraught with disaster to the 
Confederates was this intention, that Lee himself 
brought over the troops and directed the formation 
of the column with which he hoped, by a supreme 
effort, to check and disconcert Warren's enterprise. 
A savage contest ensued. Struck in flank, the vet- 
eran division of Ayres gave way, and threw into 
confusion the supporting division of Crawford. But 
the resolute action of Griflin and prompt assistance 
from Humphreys restored the line, and the Confed- 
erates were finally driven into their intrenchments. 
At half-past two Warren had re-formed his corps, 



THE EULOGY. 105 

and, advancing again to the attack, succeeded in 
carrying the enemy's advanced works along the 
White Oak road. 

While this action was in progress, Sheridan, 
moving up from Dinwiddle to Five Forks, was at- 
tacked by six brigades of cavalry and five of in- 
fantry, under Pickett. The battle that ensued was 
a notable one, though the rapid succession of ex- 
citing days which followed has deprived it of its 
due share of public attention. Much of the ground 
was unfit for cavalry, especially when drenched with 
rain. The swamp, which would not admit the j)as- 
sage of a horse,^ bore up the foot of man; the 
tangled thicket, through which the trooper sought 
in vain to force his way, gave easy access to the 
swift and stealthy woodsmen of the South. Thus 
it happened that Pickett's mixed force possessed, 
for the time and the place, a decided superiority 
over Sheridan's cavalry column. It was, also, su- 
perior in numbers, Custer's division being as yet 
far back, with the trains and the artillery. In such 
a contest Sheridan's command could not but give 
ground. For hours Pickett's infantry and cavalry 
pushed them slowly back, stubbornly resisting, now 
outflanked by the Southern horse, now cut in two 
by infantry interposing between their wings, until, 
an hour before sundown, Sheridan formed his troops 

' Sometimes a horse or mule would be standing apparently on firm ground, 
when, all at once, one foot would sink, and as he commenced scrambling to 
catch liimself, all his feet would sink, and he Avould have to be drawn by 
hand out of tlio quicksands. — Granfs Memoirs, II., 439. 



106 THE SHERIDAN MEMORIAL. 

on the open gi'ound, just outside Dinwiddie Court 
House, and pi-epared to make his final stand. Here 
Custer's gallant brigades, coining rapidly up from the 
real", took their place in the Union line. 

The action that ensued was sharp and short. The 
efforts of the Confederates to dislodge Sheridan were 
vain, and darkness fell upon his ranks unbroken. 

The situation at Dinwiddie that night was an in- 
teresting one. Pickett, in venturing thus far south 
from Five Forks, had exposed his flank to a possi- 
ble attack by Warren from the east; and that offi- 
cer had, even during the afternoon, despatched 
Bartlett's brigade towards the sound of the firing. 
He was now directed to draw back, himself, and 
send a division to Sheridan's support at the Court 
House. Later, at night, he was ordered to move, 
with his remaining divisions, directly across, by the 
Crump road, which Bartlett had taken, past J. Bois- 
seau's house, for the purpose of attacking the 
Confederates in flank and rear; while Sheridan, re- 
enforced by Ayres, should assume the offensive and 
engage Pickett in front. It was Warren's fiiilure to 
execute the latter order, within the time anticipated 
by Grant and Sheridan, which laid the foundation 
of his subsequent deprivation of command. Into the 
reasons which Warren urged in excuse for his delay, 
this is not the place to enter. There probably never 
was an officer in command of a corps in active cam- 
paign, in difficult country, who has not more than 
once failed to execute an order within the time 
his superior anticipated. There probably never was 



THE EULOGY. 107 

a commander of an army who, from impatience and 
over-anxiety, or from ignorance of the precise con- 
ditions obtaining, has not more than once given 
orders which, in the nature of the case, could not 
be executed in the time allowed, or perhaps at all. 
Of all movements that can be ordered, a night- 
march towards the enemy, not over roads held by 
friendly troops, or, at least, picketed by cavalry, is 
the most critical and dangerous in execution, and 
the one respecting which the presumption of total 
failure rises to a maximum. It will be remembered 
by many soldiers in this audience that Hooker threw 
the whole blame of the disaster at Chancellorsville 
upon Sedgwick's failure to make the night-march 
through Fredericksburg into Lee's rear, which he 
had been ordered to make. 

'No one who knew Gouverneur K. Warren will 
donbt his sincere conviction that the nature of the 
country, the state of the roads, the destruction of the 
bridges across Gravelly Run, and his own close 
proximity to the enemy, from whom he momentarily 
anticipated an attack, constituted obstacles which ren- 
dered the literal and timely execution of his orders 
not so much difficult as impossible. This I feel fully 
authorized, by a long staff experience, to say: that 
neither by Meade, in 1863, or even by Grant, in 1861:, 
was set and enforced a standard for the execution of 
orders, which would have made Warren's failure to 
accomplish the night-march to J. Boissean's house a 
capital offence. 

At daylight, Sheridan, hearing nothing from Warren, 



108 THE SHERIDAX MEMORIAL. 

moved out; but Pickett, apprehendiug as clearly as had 
the Union commanders the danger of his position, 
had begun to withdraw about midnight; and Sheridan, 
though pressing vigorously upon his rear, could not 
bring him to an engagement. 

Grievously disappointed at the failure of his plan 
to destroy Pickett's force in front of Dinwiddle, 
'Sheridan proceeded to make his preparations for 
assaulting the position at Five Forks. The Confed- 
erate works ran along the south side of the Wliite 
Oak road for about a mile and three-quarters, with 
a return to the rear at their eastern end. Within 
these works were gathered the troops which consti- 
tuted the last hope of the Confederacy. Sheridan's 
dispositions for the impending assault were masterly: 
bold, shrewd, and skilful. He purposed to extend 
his cavahy along the entire Confederate front, and 
wheel the three divisions of the Fifth Corps, now 
upon the ground, so as to enclose the ""return" of 
Pickett's hue, while swinging a division or more 
into the rear of the position. The attack was bril- 
liantly successful. In spite of a momentary break in 
Ayres' division, at the angle, and the wide deflection 
of Crawford's division, during the tui'uing movement, 
the Confederate position was carried at all points, 
the cavalry joining in the assault with immense spirit. 
Thousands of prisoners, with guns and colors, fell into 
Sheridan's hands; while those of the enemy who 
esca})ed capture retreated hastily towards the South- 
side Railroad. 

It was in the moment of victory that the order was 



THE EULOGY. 109 

issued which reheved Warren from the command of 
the corps he had conducted with distinction from the 
Rapidan to Hatcher's Run. The deflection of one of 
his divisions, during the turning movement, was added 
to the account of his faihu'e to accomphsh the night- 
march across Gravelly Run; and the commander of 
the expedition, — 

" Impiger, iracundus^ hiexorabiUs, acer" — 

dismissed him from the field. 

The splendid martial enthusiasm of Sheridan and 
his impetuosity in battle, which made him such a ter- 
ror to his foes, might not unnaturally at times have 
led him to be over-eager with those who were 
charged with executing his orders. History records 
too many instances of gallant and generous soldiers 
thoroughly misunderstanding each other; and perhaps 
there Avere never two natures less fitted for mutual 
understanding than AYarren's and Sheridan's; but, 
oh, the pity! that the iron which then entered into 
the soul of the youthful hero who saved Gettysburg 
for the Union arms, and at Bristoe turned his rear 
guard upon l)oth the pursuing columns of Lee, should 
have been left to corrode there, without remedy or 
relief, sinking ever deeper and deeper, until it brought 
this gifted and accomplished soldier, broken-hearted, 
to an early grave. 

The victory at Five Forks was the signal for the 
downfall of Petersburg. The news from Sheridan 
inspired the troops in the trenches and awakened an 



110 THE SHERIDAISr MEMORIAL. 

indescribable entliu.siasm along' the entire line. The 
soldiers in the ranks were eager to be led against 
the enemy; the most cautious commanders declared 
their ability to carry the positions in their front. As 
soon as it was light enough to see, the Sixth and 
JN^inth Corps leaped their intrenchments and stormed 
the frowning works which for months had held them 
at bay. The Confederates resisted bravely to the last; 
when their lines were carried, they fought from traverse 
to traverse, and returned again and again to recapt- 
ure j)Ositions of vantage that had been wrested from 
them. Forts Whit worth and Gregg were defended 
with romantic gallantry. But all in vain: the day 
had come for Avhich those faithful soldiers of the 
Union had waited so long. JSTow giving a hand to 
one another along the line, now wheeling to enclose 
some Confederate command, the corps of Ord, Wright, 
Parke, and Humphreys fought their way over every 
obstacle, against all resistance, until, at nightfall, the 
Confederate works south of the Appomattox, except 
those immediately enclosing the city of Petersburg, 
were in the possession of Grant. 

The story of the great retreat which was that 
night begun is a record of superhuman exertions on 
the i^art of both armies, wrought almost to frenzy 
by the magnitude of the interests involved, Lee 
straining every nerve to escape around Grant's left, 
while the Union corps, the cavalry in the lead, 
stretched away in long and rapid marches, to gain 
the points at which the Confederates might seek to 
turn south, to join Johnston in North Carolina. 



THE EULOGY. Hi 

On the 5th of April the first act of the great 
drama had been played. Two corps of Union infan- 
try stood across the Danville Kailroad, at Jetersville, 
which Sheridan, with his escort only, had reached 
the previous afternoon. Lee's retreat by this route, 
therefore, was cut off, and his sole hope was now 
to reach Lynchburg before his pursuers. The next 
morning the great race was renewed, the Second Corps 
taking up the direct pursuit; while Sheridan, with the 
cavalry, gained Rice's Station, cutting Ewell's Corps off 
from Longstreet's, and bringing the former to a stand 
at Sailor's Creek. Here, joined l)y the Sixth Corps, 
his old soldiers of the valley, Sheridan attacked Ewell 
with such promptitude and skill, such bitter resolu- 
tion and unflagging energy, that, though the enemy, 
in Sheridan's words, "fought like tigers at bay," 
their lines were broken, their troops were hurled back 
upon each other from both flanks, and almost the 
entire command was destroyed. Ewell, with five of 
his generals and several thousands of his men, with 
colors and guns, fell into Sheridan's hands. Mean- 
while, the Second Corps, which had followed close on 
Gordon's Corps all day, in line of battle, almost on 
the run, finally brought it to a stand, farther down 
on Sailor's Creek, where it was routed after a «hort 
contest, losing guns, colors, and nearly two thousand 
prisoners. 

The disasters of the 6th of April, following on the 
losses previously sustained in battle and from Grant's 
fierce pursuit, left Lee no longer with an army which 
could hope to contend, even for a time, against 



112 THE SHERIDAN MEMOIIIAT.. 

the pursuing- columns. His troops, footsore and worn 
by unceasing marches night and day, were now ahiiost 
wholly without food, since the expected supplies had 
been captured or dri^■en off b}' the cavalry Sheridan had 
trained so long, and which, in these critical opera- 
tions, were everywhere at once, attacking the enemy 
in front, and flank, and rear, shelling their columns 
on the route, seizing their trains, breaking down 
bridges, or charging side by side with the infantry. 
Yet, still, there was enough left to be worth sav- 
ing; enough to become the nucleus of a new army and 
initiate a new campaign, if only the mountains could 
be reached; enough to justify the boast that the 
Army of jSTorthern Virginia still existed, its great 
commander at its head. 

In the moi'ning, Humphreys, with the Second Corps, 
took up the pursuit on the direct road to Lynch- 
burg; and, crossing the Appomattox at Farmville, 
fought there, on the 7th of April, the last infantry 
battle of the war. Meanwhile, Sheridan strained 
every nerve to cut the enemy off from their objec- 
tive point. He spurred his jaded cavalry to exer- 
tions still more energetic; while his fiery orders to 
the infantry marching to his support, hurried them 
ever faster and faster along the road. On the 8th 
he gained Appomattox Station, on the Lynchburg 
Kailroad, capturing several supply trains, with a whole 
park of artillery; and, forming line of battle, he drove 
the Confederate advance back upon the Court House. 

Sheridan was now across the path of Lee, but with 
the cavalry only. He could not hope to hold his 



THE EULOGY. 113 

2)Osition against the force which that night would 
find concentrated in his front, unless the infantry 
should come. But could the infantry be brought up? 
Only such a spirit as now pervaded the Union 
army, only such commanders as were now at the 
fore, w^ould have made this possible. All night, in 
ghostly columns, the troops of Ord and Griffin 
pressed forward, in an luiresting march; and the 
morning of the 9th of April found them in battle 
array behind the gallant cavalry, forbidding the Con- 
federate advance. 

The long agony was over; the Army of Northern 
Virginia, ever the main-stay of the Confederacy, had 
been vanquished; the war for the Union, waged 
through four years of desperate fighting, which 
scarcely died down before it was renewed Avith 
greater fury, had been brought to a successful issue; 
the integrity of the nation had been asserted against 
the most formidable insurrection which history records. 

Among the group of illustrious officers Avho gath- 
ered at Appomattox Court House, to witness the 
surrender of the Confederate army, on that eventful 
9th of April, it is not needful to estimate or seek 
to apportion nicely the share of each in the great 
result. The glory of that achievement is, like the 
authority, dignity, and power of the country which 
was there restored, forever one and indivisible. ^o 
man appropriates to himself or carries away any part 
of it. High up in the zenith of our national life, 
its mid-day effulgence gilds the stately deeds of the 
mighty conqueror, master of a million bayonets, who 



114 THE SHERIDAX MEMORIAL. 

there received the surrender of Lee; yet that great- 
ness casts no shadow npon the faithful endeavor of 
the humblest soldier who that day interposed his body 
between the Confederate host and L^aichburg. 

After a recital of such stii-ring deeds, it w^ould be 
impertinent to dwell at length on the tame actions 
of the long j)eace in which Shei-idan enjoyed his 
well-won honors. Hardly had Johnston surrendered, 
when Sheridan was sent, with a powerful column, to 
the Rio Grande, the scene of his first campaigning 
experiences, nominally to guard American interests on 
the frontier, but really to serve notice on the Emperor 
of the French that the cowardly invasion of Mexico, 
which had been undertaken in reliance ujjon the dis- 
ruption of the United States, must now be aban- 
doned. Hampered sorely by diplomatic exigencies, 
Sheridan yet managed to convey such encourage- 
ment and practical assistance to the jiatriot party in 
northei'u Mexico as to lead to a speedy downfall of 
Maximilian's power in that section ; Avhile Xapoleon, 
taking counsel rather of his feai'S than of his man- 
hood, soon withdrew his troops to France, leaving his 
unfortunate dupe and tool to his melancholy fate. 

During the two following years, General Sheridan, 
as commander of the Military Division of the Gulf, 
with headquarters at 'New Orleans, was charged with 
maintaining the authority of the national government 
within the lately insurgent States of Texas and 
Louisiana. Into the political complications of that 
period there is no need to enter here; nor is it 
necessary to recite the incidents of his administration 



THE EULOGY. ];J^5 

to Show that Sheridan performed his unenviable dnty 
with fearlessness, impartiality, and energy. Relieved 
in August, 18(37, by the order of President Johnson, 
against the earnest protest of General Grant, he be- 
came the commander of the Department of the Mis- 
souri, with headquarters at Fort Leavenworth. Here 
he successfully directed the campaign of 1868-69 
against the ArrajDahoes, Cheyennes, Kiowas, and 
Comanches. On the day of President Grant's inau- 
guration, March 4, 1869, he was appointed lieutenant- 
general, succeeding General Sherman in that great 
office. In 1870 he was sent by our government to 
Europe, to accompany the German troops in the war 
with France. His experiences and observations on 
this important tour of duty, during which he received 
from the king and the high officers of the German 
army the consideration suitable to his rank and his 
world-renowned achievements, he has recorded in a 
narrative of much simplicity, strength, and dignity, 
contained in the memoirs which were the closino- 
work of his life. In 1884, through the retirement of 
his illustrious chief, William Tecumseh Sherman, he 
became the Commander of the Army of the United 
States; but, by an act of injustice which the Ameri- 
can people will never cease to regret. Congress failed 
to provide for his elevation to the office of General, 
to which his heroic services fully entitled him. 

The few remaining years of his life were spent in 
Washington, where he made his headquarters and his 
hapioy home, surrounded by his companions in arms 
and his loved and loving family. Honors had been 



116 THE SHEEIDA?^ MEMORIAL. 

heaped upon him, ahnost beyond the lot of the most 
fortunate of mortals; but no tongue of malice or 
envy could say that he had not won them all and 
worn them worthily. Even in his highest estate 
the same hearty comrade, no old soldier ever ap- 
proached him without a cordial greeting, or felt that 
his former commander had grown too great to be 
his friend. 

In 1886, upon the death of Hancock, Sheridan was 
elected Commander-in-Chief of the Military Order of 
the Loyal Legion of the United States. In February 
last, in fulfilment of a long-cherished purpose, he 
came to Boston to meet his companions of the 
Massachusetts Commandery. On that memorable occa- 
sion, when martial and patriotic enthusiasm rose, in 
fast- swelling Avaves, to a height rarely attained, of 
the four hundred officers of the late war there assem- 
bled, few seemed to have larger joromise of long- 
continued usefulness than he on whom all eyes were 
bent. But the appearance of robust health and 
aggressive vigor was deceptive. Already the forces 
that make against life were actively at work. A few 
weeks later, while on duty in AYashington, he was 
seized by a fatal disorder. Bravely he resisted the 
assaults of the fell destroyer; all th?.t medical science 
could do was brought to save his life, so dear to his 
country, so inexpressibly dear to his family; the whole 
nation waited in breathless anxiety for the news from 
his bedside, those who had fought against him vying 
with his former comrades in expressions of interest 
and attachment; while Congress, in a late rej^entance, 



THE EULOGY. 117 

hastily passed a bill reviving the office of General 
of the Army, to which, on the first of June, he was 
appointed, — the third in succession of those who have 
held that proud position. But the hand had been 
laid upon him which is never shaken off by mortal 
will. In a fidnt hope of improvement he was brought 
to the beautiful shores of our own Massachusetts; but 
it was to die. On the 5th of August, at Xonquit, 
the stout soldier succumbed to a mightier conqueror. 
He sleeps by the Potomac, whose banks his squad- 
rons had often swept, in all the pomp and terror of 
war. He sleeps at Arlington, the soldiers' rest, amid 
twenty thousand faithful defenders of the Union, — an 
army like that he commanded in life. 

Peace to his ashes ! Honor, immortal honor to his 
name ! Strength, unity, prosperity, forever to the 
country he loved and served so well ! 



FINAL PROCEEDINGS. 



FINAL PEOCEEDINGS. 



At a meeting of the Common Council, iield on the 20th 
of December of 1888, ^Ir. Kichaijd Sullivan, of Ward 22, 
offered the following resolutions, which were unimimousl^y 
adopted : — 

Resolved, That the thanks of the C\Xy Council l)e 
hcrel)}^ expressed to (ren. Fkaxcis A. Walkkii for 
his interesting;' and patriotic eidogy on the life and 
character of (ren. Philip 11. Shekidax, delivered 
before the city authorities in Tremont Temple on the 
18th instant, and that (xeneral Walker be requested 
to furnish a copy of his eulogy for pubhcation. 
. Mesolved, That the thanks of the City Council be 
hereby expressed to the Kev. William Elliot GinFFis 
for performing" the duty of chaplain at the memorial 
service at Tremont Temple on the 18th instant, in 
honor of Gen. Philip II. Sheridax. 

Hesolved, That the thanks of the City Coinicil be 
hereby expressed to the trustees of Tremont Temple 
for their courtesy in allowing the city the free use 
of their hall for the memorial services on the 18th 
instant in honor of Gren. Philip H. Sheridax. 

The Board of Aldermen, on the 24th of December, con- 
curred in the passage of the resolutions, and they were 
approved by the ]Mayor, December 27, 1888. 







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